The New EURODAC Regulation: Fingerprints as a Source of Informal Discrimination

• Main Author: Roots Lehte
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sciendo 2015-10-01
• Series: Baltic Journal of European Studies
• Subjects: asylum seekers; biometric systems; database; dublin regulation; eu regulation 604/2013; eurodac; fingerprints
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1515/bjes-2015-0016
• ISSN: 2228-0596

The EURODAC Regulation establishes the database of the fingerprints of asylum seekers. In 2015, the new EURODAC Regulation came in force and some basic concepts that were not in the previous regulation have been changed. The article analyzes the responses to the new EURODAC Regulation from UNHCR and the Commission and the threats that this new regulation is creating. This article aims to find out whether the changes introduced in the new EURODAC will bring potential discrimination concerns and whether asylum seekers are treated as potential criminals and therefore causing stigmatization of those groups of people in society. The article gives an overview of the EURODAC database, fingerprinting and biometric systems, and comparison of old and new EURODAC regulation. The full assessment of the application of the regulation can be done after it has been in force for some time