19/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the Commission published the third annual report on the activities of EURODAC, the European biometric database, which shows that, in 2005, the number of asylum applications fell, while the number of persons recorded as having illegally crossed the border significantly rose. The report states that 16% of all requests filed in 2005 were “multiple applications”, i.e. asylum requests presented by persons having already filed a request in the same country or in another EU Member State. Also, in 2005, EURODAC processed 187,223 sets of fingerprints of asylum seekers, 25,162 sets of fingerprints of people having crossed borders illegally and 46,299 sets of fingerprints of people apprehended while illegally staying on the territory of a Member State.