Positions at a glance
Supporters
Eurodac (European Asylum Dactyloscopy Database) is a centralised biometric system operated by the EU agency eu-LISA that stores fingerprints of asylum applicants and certain categories of third-country nationals apprehended in connection with irregular border crossings or found staying irregularly in a Member State. It became operational in January 2003 and is the principal technical instrument supporting the Dublin system, which allocates responsibility for examining an asylum claim to a single Member State — usually the country of first entry.
Opponents
When a person lodges an asylum application or is intercepted crossing an external border irregularly, their fingerprints are taken and transmitted to the central unit, which checks them against existing records. A "hit" indicates the person has previously applied for asylum elsewhere in the EU or entered irregularly through another Member State, triggering potential transfer under Dublin.
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In 2015, during the peak of arrivals via the Eastern Mediterranean route, Greece and Italy faced sustained pressure from other EU Member States to systematically fingerprint arrivals into Eurodac, leading to the establishment of "hotspots" on Lesvos, Lampedusa and elsewhere.
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