Border Violence Monitoring Network seeks support to stop EURODAC

Border Violence Monitoring Network, a Network of grassroots organizations documenting illegal pushbacks & police violence by EU member state authorities in the Western Balkans and Greece, is calling on concerned organisations to join it to stop EURODAC.

Eurodac is the European Union (EU) fingerprint database for identifying asylum seekers and irregular border-crossers. After the European Parliament approved the last Eurodac reform proposed by far-right party Vox (December 2022), asylum applicants and irregular border-crossers over the age of 6 have their fingerprints, pictures, and other biometric data taken as a matter of EU law, which discriminatorily considers biometric data as a “special category of data” just in the case of EU citizens. These are then sent in digitally to a central unit at the European Commission, and automatically checked against other prints on the database. This enables authorities to determine whether asylum seekers have already applied for asylum in another EU member state or have illegally transited through another EU member state (“principle of first contact”). 

Calling for support to stop EURODAC, Border Violence Monitoring Network said: “On April 10, @Europarl_EN will vote on the expansion of #EURODAC, a database to facilitate the registration and deportation of asylum seekers.These changes will transform EURODAC into a violent tool of #MassSurveillance.The EU is expanding EURODAC to include #FacialRecognition. This invasive scanning of faces strips asylum seekers of their dignity, and increases their risk of deportation and being harmed.

“With the EURODAC reform, people seeking asylum can now be forced to give their biometrics – like fingerprints and face scans. Refusal is not an option for them – it can lead to them being detained and facing delays to their asylum-seeking process.

“The expansion of EURODAC would particularly harm racialised people, and lead to an increase in #RacialProfiling .This will lead to more discriminatory identity checks and heighten the prejudice of racialised people being seen as ‘suspects’.Migrant children as young a six years old will be subjected to having their faces scanned and fingerprints taken in border camps and detention centers.

“These procedures are invasive and stigmatising. EU’s double standards on which children are protected are clear.

Join us is urging EU lawmakers to #StopEURODAC❌ and safeguard the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the EU.”