EU to update fingerprint database for asylum seekers

The European Union (EU) will include more data on asylum seekers and irregular migrants in its database.

The European Parliament and European Council on Tuesday agreed to reinforce the EURODAC system, which stores and searches data on asylum applicants and irregular migrants, according to a press release issued by the European Parliament.

Fingerprints, passport photos and alphanumerical data -- including name, nationality number or passport number -- of asylum seekers and irregular migrants will be stored in the database.

The age for obtaining fingerprints and facial images of minors will be reduced from 14 to 6 years, while "proportional degree of coercion" can be used to take fingerprints or passport photographs of children.

With the new database, Europol will also be able to query the database more effectively in order to detect and prevent terrorism and other serious crimes, the press release said.

- 'DOUBLE STANDARDS OF THE EU'
Some NGO representatives interpret the identification of irregular migrants and asylum seekers as "the double standard of the EU".

The European Court of Justice ruled last year that Canada could not store personal information about visitors from the EU.

The rule ordered that personal and biometric data of visitors from the EU should be deleted after leaving Canada.