BRUSSELS: An EU plan to use an automatic facial recognition software and fingerprinting system on irregular migrants and asylum-seekers is problematic and should not become a precedent for other laws, the bloc’s data protection head said Friday.
The independent European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiorowski said in a statement that there is no evidence that the measures envisaged in the regulation are actually justified, according to western media.
Wiewiorowski said that he was taking the lack of an impact assessment as worrying, given the nature of the personal data at stake — sensitive biometric data — and that vulnerable people may be involved – migrants.
He added that the EDPS considered that this should not constitute a precedent for any future law having comparable impact on the basic rights to privacy and data protection.
EU nations and the European Parliament in December agreed a packet of draft legislation that include the data collection of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers.
Measure to restrict migrants
Other measures included more border detention centres, speedier deportations, a faster vetting of irregular arrivals, and shared responsibility to take pressure off frontline EU states.
The reform is likely to be legislated before June this year, when EU elections will decide the next European Parliament.
Migrant rights groups, including Oxfam and Amnesty, have criticized the changes as a dismantling of human rights principles and refugee law.
The EDPS, which ensures the bloc’s institutions respect data protection laws, issues recommendations only.
As a consultative authority, it has no direct power to bring about reforms to laws although it can appear in cases brought before the European Court of Justice.
