If you tuned in to Virgin Media’s new documentary ‘Is Ireland Full?’ you might have heard CEO of the Irish Refugee Council Nick Henderson’s description of what happens when someone claims asylum in Ireland.
In the documentary Henderson correctly states that the fingerprints of asylum seekers are taken and checked against the EURODAC database.
During this scene the documentary – which I for one thought was very good – shows b-roll of a person having his finger print scanned in a way that anyone who doesn’t know what EURODAC actually is would be forgiven for thinking means that a criminal background check is being performed: it’s not.
What Henderson does not explain is that the EURODAC database checks if an asylum seeker has made a previous asylum claim in any other EU member state in efforts to weed out those who make multiple claims.
It is not a criminal database and therefore serves no function in screening asylum seekers for possible criminal history.
There is much confusion as to whether asylum claimants have criminal background checks done at the point of arrival with the EURODAC system often being mistakenly lauded as proof that these kinds of checks are being carried out.
As Dr. Matt Treacy previously wrote for Gript that according to EU body EUR-Lex, EURODAC “is an EU database that stores the fingerprints of international protection applicants or people who have crossed a border illegally.”
“The purpose of Eurodac is to give member states information to help them to decide which country is responsible for a person’s international protection application.”
Treacy wrote that EUR-Lex even warns that Eurodac can only be used by police forces and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation to compare fingerprints linked to criminal investigations in very particular circumstances and as “only as a last resort.”
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee previously responded to queries by Carol Nolan TD saying that whilst EURODAC was not a criminal database “the underlying regulations permit law enforcement agencies” to use it for criminal investigations.
A Gript investigation of all available EURODAC reports and, up to the end of 2022, revealed that there’s not a single record of the Guardaí having ever used EURODAC for criminal enquiries.
So perhaps those who use the word “unvetted” in relation to asylum seekers coming into Ireland can be forgiven for using the word because, as it relates to criminal background checks, it’s true.
As Niamh Uí Bhriain previously reported: “security and safety fears have been raised repeatedly by local protesters, especially after it became known that thousands of those claiming to be asylum seekers had been allowed to enter the country without passports or documentation”.
Protesters have been criticised for describing asylum seekers as “unvetted” persons. Now, information released to TDs Carol Nolan and Michael McNamara by the Department of Justice has provided clarity on the matter.
The International Protection Office (IPO) takes the asylum applicant’s fingerprints but, while they are checked against two databases, neither is a criminal database.
Read the full report here.