The EU’s new migration rules make it mandatory for EU border guards to gather biometrics from irregular migrants over the age of six, even allowing for “proportionate coercion” if a child is resisting, according to the consolidate legislative text.
The file on Eurodac – the EU’s large-scale IT system that processes and stores fingerprints of third country nationals and stateless persons who have entered a European country – is one of five regulations that make up the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum.
The Pact, on which EU institutions reached a political agreement in December after years of negotiations, seeks to create harmonised rules on how the EU will handle requests for international protection, starting from the first arrival and registration, throughout the process of applying, and removals if the application is unsuccessful.
A revamped biometric system
The new migration rules include a revision of Eurodac, which has existed since 2003, to extend the system’s scope.
According to the new law, fingerprints will be the preferred method of identification over facial images, which will be considered as a second option in border procedures when fingerprints are not possible.
Currently, only those above 14 years of age can have their fingerprints taken. However, the new rules set out that any children above six years of age will be covered by the regulation – meaning that it will be mandatory for their fingerprints to be registered.
This is the case even if it is against the child’s will.
“A proportionate degree of coercion may be used against minors to ensure their compliance with that obligation,” part of the article, regarding the fingerprint collection of minors, states.
An investigation published by Investigate Europe on Tuesday found that France and the Netherlands pushed for the relaxation of protections for children in the negotiations.
Next steps
EU ministers have still to finish work on some of the files of the provisional agreement reached last December.
After the formal approval of the whole pact by the civil liberties (LIBE) committee on Wednesday, the European Parliament will vote on the package in its final plenary in April, according to a draft plenary agenda seen by Euractiv.
Migration pact will get first vote of approval by EU Parliament in April
Following a political provisional agreement on the migration pact reached by EU institutions last December, the European Parliament will hold the first vote of formal approval in its plenary session in April, according to a note from the Parliament’s agenda-setting body, seen by Euractiv.
More than 80 civil society organisations have asked the European Parliament to block the Pact at Wednesday’s vote.
“The agreement is a continuation of a decade of policy that has led to the proliferation of rights violations in Europe. Moreover, it will have devastating implications for the right to international protection in the bloc and greenlight abuses across Europe including racial profiling, default de facto detention and pushbacks,” the organisation stated in the letter.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
Read more with Euractiv
Spain’s PP looks to bury controversy of Feijóo mulling pardon for Catalan separatistsThe conservative Spanish People’s Party (Partido Popular – EPP) sought on Tuesday (13 February) to quell the fallout caused by media reports that its conservative leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo would be willing to grant conditional pardons to several Catalan separatist leaders.
Source: euractiv.com
