EURODAC is an automated fingerprint identification system used by all European Union countries to track and identify asylum seekers and illegal border crossers. Fingerprints of those over 14 years old are sent to a centralized European database managed by the European Data Protection Supervisor. The system aims to rationalize immigration data and promote fast and efficient searches related to immigration. The system has been controversial among privacy advocates, but the EDPS promises the utmost care in the collection and protection of all information. Records are destroyed after ten years or two years after obtaining EU citizenship or a residence permit.
Since 2000, all European Union countries have been obliged to participate in an automated fingerprint identification scheme known as “EURODAC” to track and identify asylum seekers and those who have crossed borders illegally. The term EURODAC comes from the phrase “European dactyloscopy”, which basically means fingerprints. The system requires all EU member states to fingerprint certain classes of people at border crossings. These fingerprints must be sent, together with certain identifying information, to a centralized European database. This database is managed by the European Data Protection Supervisor, who sets the rules for the duration of data retention and data security.
One of the primary objectives of the EURODAC system is the rationalization of immigration data between countries and the promotion of fast and efficient searches related to immigration. The European Union is a large body with many member countries. Making data collected in one of those countries readily available to government agents in another can be challenging. At least for immigration, this challenge can be reduced by the EURODAC system.
EURODAC requires each Member State to fingerprint any person over the age of 14 who seeks asylum within their own country’s borders. Fingerprints must also be taken for persons over the age of 14 who have crossed the border illegally or are living illegally within the country. Fingerprints must be sent digitally to the EU’s ‘central unit’, housed in the office of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). In addition to the digital scans of the fingerprints, the records also include the EU country where the fingerprint was taken, the gender of the person, the place and date of the asylum application or illegal immigration allegation, the dates of collection and transmission and a reference number.
All member states of the European Union must comply with mandates for the transmission and archiving of fingerprints. However, other European countries may choose to participate voluntarily. This creates a centralized database that can be useful across the European continent.
The EDPS keeps all records in the Central Unit for a maximum of ten years and makes them searchable by any EU immigration officer. When a fingerprint enters the central unit that matches an existing fingerprint, an alert is immediately sent to immigration officials. The idea is to quickly identify people who have previously sought asylum in other EU countries or who have previously been discovered illegally crossing other EU borders. In this way, fingerprinting has become one of the main forensic techniques in the EU to streamline immigration. The records are destroyed two years after a person obtains EU citizenship or obtains a residence permit; otherwise, they are destroyed after 10 years.
The EURODAC system has been the subject of some controversy, particularly among privacy advocates. Privacy advocates argue that the storage and reporting of immigrants’ fingerprints violates the personal privacy of those immigrants and can lead to unfair and unnecessarily harsh treatment at border crossings. For his part, the EDPS promised the utmost care in the collection and protection of all information. The EDPS has also set up a system whereby individuals can ask to see the information they hold. The EDPS is accountable to the European Parliament and to the Council of the European Union.
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