Eurodac, the European data bank for the testing and control of fingerprints of asylum seekers and clandestine immigrants, in operation for just over a year, published a report on 5 May, according to which 17,287 people presented asylum applications simultaneously in more than one state of the Union in 2003. The phenomenon, known as “asylum shopping”, accounts for approximately 7% of the total of applicants. It’s a phenomenon controlled by organized crime, and is thought to conceal clandestine networks for the trafficking in human beings. The states most targeted by the racket are the UK, Germany and Sweden. Considering Eurodac’s results positive in its first year of activity, the European Council and Commission could by the summer place its services also at the disposal of agencies responsible for the crackdown on international terrorism.
