A number of NGOs are urging the European Parliament to reject the reform of the EURODAC regulation, Europe’s large-scale biometric database on migrants and asylum seekers, on 10 April, when it is due to validate in plenary session the agreements reached on the Pact on Migration and Asylum (see EUROPE 13350/11).
In a letter, by EDRi, SOLIDAR, Privacy International, Statewatch and Asylex, among others, and published on 24 March, legal experts consider that the reform would “put at risk many of the individuals that some of us represent in their asylum claims or other procedures, exacerbating concrete cases of harm. These include pushbacks, unjust criminalization, excessive surveillance, coercion, arbitrary detention and flawed administrative decisions”.
One of the “main objectives of the EURODAC reform is to draw statistics in order to forecast border crossings and migration patterns. This data could be used to interdict, curtail and prevent access to international protection procedures, in breach of the right to seek asylum and the principle of nonrefoulement”.
EURODAC could also enable discriminatory and illegal ethnic and racial profiling practices, according to the NGOs.
Link to the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/bhp (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)