Look over there! That man is being arrested. His car is being searched by the police. His girlfriend is being taken away. All his luggage is being put in the police van. I wonder what has happened.
The present continuous passive is not easy to understand. Many students think it is complicated and difficult to use, so they avoid it at all costs. Let's begin at the beginning and make the present continuous passive as trouble-free as we can.
Remember that the present continuous tense is used for an action going on now in the present as we speak. She is cleaning the windows. Here we are talking about what she is doing as we speak so the tense of our sentence is the present continuous.
The passive is used when we want the thing in our sentence to undergo the action of the verb, not do the action of the verb. The present continuous passive tells us what is happening at this very moment to the thing in our sentence. What is happening to the windows? The windows are being cleaned. There we have the present continuous passive.
The present continuous passive is simply is/are being + past participle. Remember it says what is happening to or what is being done to something at the actual time we are speaking.
The car is being washed.
The streets are being cleaned.