News: EC Proposes Police Access to Asylum Fingerprint Database

The Eurodac Database, which holds fingerprints for asylum seekers and other irregular border crossers, can currently only be accessed by national authorities dealing with asylum requests. Under the proposed legislation, however, Europol and national police services would gain access for fighting serious crime and terrorism. Human Rights groups have criticised the proposals:

The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) has said the move could potentially put asylum-seekers in danger, since Europol has the right to exchange data with other EU bodies and with non-EU countries. “How would it be ensured that information about people fleeing persecution doesn't reach their persecutors?”, Bjarte Vandvik, the ECRE's secretary-general, has said.