Eurodac
What is Eurodac?
Eurodac is an information system for comparing the fingerprints of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants in order to facilitate the application of the Dublin II Regulation, which makes it possible to determine the Member State responsible for the examination of an asylum application.
The Eurodac system consists of a central unit managed by the European Commission, a central computerized database of fingerprints and an electronic transmission system between the Member States and the central database. Only the national authorities competent for asylum matters have access to the central database.
The three categories of individuals whose personal data are collected by Eurodac are the following: asylum seekers older than 14 years of age, foreign nationals apprehended while illegally crossing an external border and foreign nationals illegally present on a Member State's territory.
The following data are registered: the Member State of origin, fingerprints, the individual's sex, and a reference number used by the Member State of origin. In case of an alert, additional data are exchanged via the DubliNet system. DubliNet is a secure electronic network for communications between the national authorities treating the asylum applications. The two Member States concerned, via DubliNet, can exchange personal data differing from those in Eurodac, such as an individual's name, date of birth, nationality, a photograph, details on his family members and in certain cases also addresses.
Is there supervision of the personal data processed in the Eurodac system?
The European Data Protection Supervisor supervises personal data processing in the database (central unit) and the transmission of data to Member States. The Member States' data protection authorities (in Belgium the Commission for the Protection of Privacy) supervise the data processing operations carried out by national authorities, as well as the transmission of data to the central unit.
To ensure a coordinated approach, a supervisory control group consisting of the European Data Protection Supervisor and the national data protection authorities regularly meets to look into common problems raised by the operation of the Eurodac system and to recommend common solutions.
