Brussels, 06/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - In an opinion paper published on Thursday 5 September which refers to the European Commission's proposal for a regulation on the establishment of Eurodac (see EUROPE 10623), Peter Hustinx, European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), speaks emotionally about the “creeping erosion of fundamental rights” in the European Union. Presented in May this year at the behest of member states, the legislative proposal could give European police forces conditional access to the Eurodac database of fingerprints of asylum seekers.
While the EDPS “understands that the availability of a database with fingerprints could be a useful additional tool in combating crime”, he believes that “this amendment is a serious intrusion into the rights of a vulnerable group of people in need of protection” and he asks “if such access is really necessary”. For example, “if a fingerprint is found at a crime scene, asylum seekers can potentially be identified through Eurodac data while other individuals cannot because similar data is not available for all other groups of society”.
Hustinx takes the view that a number of legal instruments already exist which allow a member state to consult fingerprints and other law enforcement data held by other member states. He states that the “Commission has not provided evidence that these instruments are insufficient, nor demonstrated any other substantive reason why accessing data on asylum seekers is necessary”. “Just because the data has already been collected, does not mean it should be used for another purpose which may have a far-reaching negative impact on the lives of individuals. To intrude upon the privacy of individuals and risk stigmatising them requires strong justification and the Commission has simply not provided sufficient reason why asylum seekers should be singled out for such treatment”, he opines.
The Commission should therefore provide sound evidence and reliable statistics on the need to consult Eurodac data. The EDPS above all recommends that access to the database by law enforcement authorities of member states should be subject to specific criteria “such as substantiated suspicion that the perpetrator of a terrorist or other serious criminal offence has applied for asylum”. He also trusts that a request for access for law enforcement purposes should be verified by an independent authority or, preferably, submitted for prior judicial authorisation. Since 2000, the Eurodac system has allowed a country to verify whether asylum seekers or illegal migrants have already made an application for asylum in other member states and whether they have entered the EU illegally. (SP/transl.jl)