European Ministers Hope to Start Digital Fingerprinting in Five Countries in 2006

In a bid to improve security, ministers from five European countries said Monday they hoped to start digital fingerprinting for passports in 2006, but they split over a German proposal to put illegal migrants in transit camps in North Africa. Interior ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy held two days of informal talks in a 19th-century villa in Florence to prepare initiatives they hope will eventually be adopted throughout the 25-member European Union. But they failed to overcome their own differences over Germany's proposal, backed by Italy, to set up camps in North Africa to process asylum seekers before they set out on perilous sea journeys to southern European shores. In a statement at the end of the talks Monday morning, the ministers said they were hoping to introduce the fingerprint measure for passports issued in their countries starting in 2006. Conservative Italian politicians hailed the fingerprinting measure as aiding the fight against terrorism and immigrant smuggling.

Although Spain, like Italy, is flooded with immigrants making clandestine voyages across the Mediterranean from North Africa, it sided with France against the German idea.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=176533


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - October 21st, 2004