EURODAC database important part of common asylum system, says Frattini
The European Commission has released new figures showing how biometrics technology is helping the EU Member States to manage immigration. In 2006 alone, the EU-wide biometric database EURODAC processed over 270,000 sets of fingerprints. In the framework of the common European Asylum System, it stores and compares fingerprints of asylum seekers and illegal entrants. EURODAC's main purpose, however, is not to identify the individual, but to help determine which EU Member State is responsible for examining an asylum application in accordance with the Dublin Regulation. According to the regulation, asylum requests are the responsibility of the Member State that permitted the applicant to enter or reside. In addition, the system is designed to detect multiple applications in the same Member State or in several Member States. 'EURODAC is an essential part of the EU's common European Asylum System,' said EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini. 'The report shows the effective contribution of this EU-wide fingerprint database in managing asylum applications, helping establish which Member State should examine each of them through the comparison of fingerprints of asylum seekers and illegal entrants and preventing 'asylum shopping'.' The system stores the fingerprints of anyone over the age of 14 who applies for asylum in one of the participating countries. Yet, for reasons of data protection, it does not contain any further details of the person, not even the name. The database relies exclusively on biometric comparison. EURODAC has been up and running since the beginning of 2003. It is the first common automated fingerprint identification system within the European Union. The database is operated by the European Commission on behalf of the participating states, which include the Member States of the European Union as well as Norway and Iceland.