Brussels, 03/08/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 3 August, the European Commission announced that the number of persons illegally crossing EU external borders had plummeted in 2009. The European Executive published the annual report on the activities of Eurodac, the European biometric database used for determining which member states must examine a request for asylum, by providing essential information on trends in asylum requests and illegal entries to the EU. In 2009, Eurodac processed 236,939 sets of fingerprints of asylum seekers, 31,071 sets of fingerprints of people crossing the borders irregularly and 85,554 sets of fingerprints of people apprehended while illegally staying on the territory of a member state. The report also shows a sharp decrease in the number of persons apprehended in connection with irregular crossing of the EU external border. After climbing by 62.3% between 2007 and 2008 (to reach 61,945), the number of registered illegal entrants fell by 50% in 2009 (to 31,071 transactions). The number of searches in the database on the basis of fingerprints of third country nationals found illegally on the territory of the member states increased by 12.7%. The number of “multiple applications”, i.e. when people apply for asylum more than once in the same counrty or in another member state, rose from 17.5% in 2008 to 23.3% in 2009. (B.C./transl.jl)