Asylum seekers in Germany, France, Holland sent back to Malta using fingerprint recognition

Data from the European Union’s fingerprints database Eurodac has shed light on the destinations where asylum seekers entering Malta end up inside Europe.

5 August 2010, 12:00am
by Matthew Vella

1 min read

According to Eurodac’s latest annual report, asylum applicants in Malta have been apprehended illegally residing in Germany, France and the Netherlands. Those claiming asylum in Italy often move on into France. On average around 25% of the persons found illegally on the territory had previously applied for asylum in a Member State.

Eurodac is a large database of biometric fingerprints of applicants for asylum and illegal immigrants found within the EU. The database helps the effective application of the Dublin convention on handling claims for asylum: asylum seekers who are found illegally residing in a member state are deported back to the first country of entry where they applied for asylum.

In the case of asylum applicants, data are kept for ten years unless the individual obtains the citizenship of one of the member states, in which case their particulars must be immediately erased.

In 2009, the number of registered asylum applications rose by 8%, but the number of registered irregular entrants fell by 50% in 2009. 23.3% of the asylum applications in 2009 were multiple (second or more) asylum applications.

However, this figure includes not only the instances in which persons applied for asylum more than once, but also a number of instances in which the fingerprints of an asylum seeker are recorded both by the member state in which he applied for asylum and in the member state ultimately deemed responsible for consideration of the asylum claim. The European Commission proposed to remedy this distortion.

Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...

COLIN GALEA •

Malta wake up before it is to late

•

Only one word can describe the other EU countries who criticize Malta on illegal immigration. Hypocrites

Patrick Calleja •

The repatriation of Assylum seekers to Malta repesents the litmus test for the "good doers" in Europe who are scandalised with tiny Malta, but then, refute to help, in a miniscule way, what they preach to us! Moreover, this is the culmination of all the foereign policy air bubbles and pomposity, that Gonzi PN, and earlier Fenech Adami,saddled us with when they accepted, every comma, semi colon and fullstop, in the negotiations for Malta's entry into the EU! Listening to Net TV one gets the idea, that the Maltese Prime Minister is like a bumble bee, busy picking pollen from one country to the other; steadily we ,are getting only BURDEN DUMPING!