The European Commission has released a series of questions and answers related to proposed changes to the Common European Asylum System, in particular to the issue of non-compliance with the fingerprinting process.The EC states that the current Dublin system was not designed for situations of large-scale uncontrolled arrivals and does not ensure a sustainable and fair sharing of responsibility for asylum applicants across the Union.”The system can also be subject to abuse by applicants because it lacks clear provisions on their obligations and sanctions for non-compliance, in particular as regards the refusal to be fingerprinted.”The Q&A notes that the European Agenda on Migration has suggested adding additional biometric identifiers to Eurodac in order to mitigate some of the challenges Member States were facing with damaged fingertips and non-compliance with the fingerprinting process. This is why the EC is now storing facial images in Eurodac.This means member states will need to take a facial image of the data-subject for transmission to the Central System.Explaining why the age for taking fingerprints and facial images has been proposed to be lowered to six, the EC says: “Many applicants for international protection and third-country nationals arriving irregularly to the European Union travel with families and in many cases very young children. Being able to identify these children with the help of fingerprints and facial images will help identify children in cases where they are separated from their families”.Crucially, the proposed changes permit Member States to introduce sanctions, in accordance with their national law, for those individuals who refuse to comply with the fingerprinting procedure.”It is up to the Member State to decide the form of penalties or sanctions to be introduced,” said the EC.
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