European rules being drawn up in secret will make it compulsory for children, possibly as young as six, to have their fingerprints stored on a database which could be shared with countries around the world.
The prospect alarms civil liberties groups who fear it represents a "sea change" in the state's relationship with children and one that may lead to juveniles being erroneously accused of crimes. Under laws being drawn up behind closed doors by the European Commission's "Article Six" committee, which is composed of representatives of the EU's 25 member states, all children will have to attend a fingerprinting center to obtain an EU passport by June 2009 at the latest.
The use of fingerprints and other biometric data is designed to prevent passport fraud and allow European member states to meet US entry visa requirements, but the decision to fingerprint children has disturbed human rights groups.
The British-based civil liberties pressure group Statewatch last night accused EU governments of taking decisions in which "people and parliaments have no say." It said the committee's decisions were simply based on "technological possibilities -- not on the moral and political questions of whether it is right or desirable."
"This is a sea change," said Ben Hayes, spokesman for Statewatch.
"We are going from fingerprinting criminals to universal fingerprinting without any real debate. In the long term everyone's fingerprints will be stored on a central database. You have to ask what will be the costs to a person's privacy," he said.
According to secret documents obtained by Statewatch, the committee will make it compulsory for all children from the age of 12 to be fingerprinted. However, several of the committee's member states are lobbying to bring the compulsory age limit down. Sweden tells the committee it "could agree with a minimum age of six years for passports."
The UK, meanwhile, observes that it has collected the fingerprints of five-year-old asylum seekers with no "significant problems." Since February the UK Home Office has been fingerprinting children as young as five at asylum centers in London and Liverpool. It took the decision amid concerns children were being registered by several families in order to claim more benefits.
British refugee support groups, including the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, (JCWI) have described the action as "intrusive." The JCWI also expressed concerns that fingerprints kept on file could be held against children if they tried to return to the UK in later life.
Fingerprinting young children is considered difficult because their fingers have yet to fully develop. The European Commission notes: "Scientific tests have confirmed that the paillary ridges on the fingers are not sufficiently developed to allow biometric capture and analysis until the age of six."
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