EU to Fingerprint All Asylum Seekers

Asylum seekers in Europe face a new hurdle from today, when the EU officially launches a centralised fingerprinting system operating from Brussels.

The European commission rejected civil liberties concerns about a "fortress Europe" policy and insisted that no information would be passed on to police or security services.

The €6.5m (£4.3m) Eurodac database would contain neither names nor personal details, apart from biometric data on fingerprints. This would be compared to data from those crossing borders in Europe.

Some 10-20% of the 400,000 people seeking asylum in the EU every year are estimated to be involved in so-called "asylum shopping" - seeking out the countries which offer the best conditions.

The Schengen system abolished border controls between most EU countries - Britain and Ireland apart. But from today, all applicants over the age of 14 will be fingerprinted at their point of entry into the union. Anyone crossing a border and found to have applied for asylum in another member state will be returned there.

Eurodac will be supervised by an independent watchdog. Fingerprints are to be stored for a maximum of 10 years and will be erased if an asylum seeker gains full citizenship.

But Tony Bunyan, of the London-based group Statewatch, said: "It is hard to see how people will be able to exercise their privacy rights. There are also concerns that some countries may extend the scope of fingerprinting."