Government joins European fingerprint database
Home Office in on collecting asylum seeker smudges
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The Home Office has opted in to the Eurodac fingerprint database, which collects the fingerprints of asylum seekers and some illegal entrants to the European Union.
Immigration minister Damien Green said in a parliamentary written statement, published on 11 January, that the move will help member states determine who is responsible under the Dublin Regulation for dealing with an asylum claim.
The regulation's main objective is to identify as quickly as possible the member state responsible for examining an asylum application to prevent abuse of asylum procedures through multiple applications.
"The government are committed to the Dublin system, of which Eurodac is an essential part, as it helps tackle the problem of people abusing asylum systems across Europe by making multiple claims in different EU member states," he said.
"The government will approach forthcoming legislation in the area of justice and home affairs on a case-by-case basis, with a view to maximising our country's security, protecting Britain's civil liberties and enhancing our ability to control immigration."
Eurodac consists of a Central Unit within the European Commission, equipped with a computerised central database for comparing fingerprints, and a system for electronic data transmission between EU countries and the database.
As well as fingerprints, the data sent by EU countries also includes: the EU country of origin; the sex of the person; the place and date of the asylum application or the apprehension of the person; the reference number; the date on which the fingerprints were taken; and the date that the data were transmitted to the unit.
Information is collected on those over 14 years of age and is sent via national access points. The data of asylum applicants is kept of 10 years unless the individual obtains the citizenship of one of the EU countries, in which case their data is immediately erased.
This article was originally published at Kable.
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COMMENTS
Sick joke: "... protecting Britain's civil liberties ..."
Pray tell me, how many remain?
Plod can search people on a whim; Plod can look at your images/video; UK government databases cross-linked for easy profiling; DNA collected and stored for years; taking pictures of children inference of perversion; taking pictures of historic/old/famous buildings potential terrorism use; presumption of guilt in TV licence investigations; train-spotting is potential terrorism preparation; all electronic communications filtered for sigint/or tapped; mail is opened. Unlimited house arrest control orders. InterNet access subject to filtering.
At least air is free.
Good news for oldies/seniors ... fingerprints become increasingly difficult to take once you hit your 70's. For you tykes there's always arsenic applied to hands followed by dermatologist abrasion - leaves a very satisfying hatch pattern!
The coalition honoured the killing of the national DNA/fingerprint database, as promised.
British civil liberties? Not too many to protect.
Fingerprint database fields
Currently Used:
FAS - failed asylum seeker
CFN - Convicted Felon
Reserved for future use:
NYC - Not Yet Convicted
NYA - Not Yet Accused
NPP - Not Popular with Politicians
BFB - Bad For Business
NNJ - Not Non-Jewish
"But it seemed like a good idea at the time!"
Perhaps the UK should spend some money reviewing the asylum seekers it has.
Waiting years for a decision is both inhumane and inefficient.
However it also gives time for any bogus ones to register them (and their family) with various services, knock up the partner to play the "But the little ones have never known life in my homeland" card and get in a bit of spare untaxed cash from a friendly builder.
Because there is such a shortage of cowboy builders in the UK it has to import them from elsewhere.
Of course he still might be genuine. That police file (with photographs) seems pretty genuine. Lucky he had just enough time to get it copied while the family were getting packed. Lucky also he and the family flew straight to Britain so they can't be deported back to whatever part of the EU they first touched down in first.
Anon because I am not a racist and this is an accurate description of at least one case in the files. The question is how many more are like it?
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