Earlier this month, on the 5th of April, a new Eurodac release was successfully deployed increasing the storage capacity of the system to 5.5 Million records. This
deployment was the first step in the implementation of a planned upgrade to 7 Million
records that will take place over the coming months. This latest roll-out forms part of a
series of upgrades that started late in 2015 intended to appropriately size
the Eurodac system in order to cope with the huge data traffic increase that stems from the ongoing migration
influx towards Europe.
What is Eurodac?
Eurodac is the European Dactyloscopy (fingerprints)
database. It facilitates the application of the Dublin Regulation by helping to
determine the country responsible for the assessment of an asylum claim presented
in the European Union or the Associated Dublin States (Norway, Iceland, Switzerland
and Liechtenstein). The system is used in 32 countries: 28 EU Member States and
4 Associated Dublin States. Since 20 July 2015, Eurodac Recast Regulation No
603/2013 took effect and national police forces as well as Europol can have access
to the system subject to strict conditions, for the purpose of prevention,
detection and investigation of terrorist offences as well as other serious
criminal offences.
