Cyprus national police get access to European Union data

Cyprus fulfills a critical requirement to join the European Union (EU) with the purchase of an enhanced automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) for its National Police.

“The system, manufactured by Motorola, was installed quickly and efficiently, and passed all official European testing necessary to be on EURODAC,” said Christos Drakos, Information Technology manager for Cyprus.

EURODAC, established in December 2000, is a system for the comparison of fingerprints that enables EU member states to identify asylum-seekers as well as people who have crossed borders in an irregular manner. EURODAC consists of a computerized central database that houses fingerprints of asylum applicants and a system for electronic data transmission between member states and the database.

“We have designed Motorola’s AFIS technology to be the most effective way to share important data between nations,” said Darrin Reilly, Motorola Communications and Electronics vice president and general manager, Biometrics Unit. “This system is the best solution for states preparing to enter the European Union that now need enhanced capabilities to identify an increasing number of asylum seekers.”

The island country of Cyprus, which encompasses 3,572 square miles and more than 900,000 residents, became Europe’s eastern-most outpost for Middle East asylum seekers when the island became a member state of the EU in May. According to Eurostat (Statistical Office of the EU), Cyprus experienced the largest increase in asylum seekers in 2003 of the 10 countries joining the EU in May. In the first four months of 2004, more than 4,800 applications have been received in Cyprus from asylum seekers.

The Omnitrak™ AFIS/palmprint identification system provides the Cyprus National Police with a way to capture fingerprints in a central database with real-time identification and processing capabilities. The system for Cyprus also includes photo imaging capabilities for capturing mugshots. Motorola is providing similar electronic interfaces with the EURODAC system for Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Czech Republic and Switzerland.

Motorola’s Omnitrak is the most advanced identification system available today for storing, searching and matching fingerprints and palmprints with exceptional accuracy and continuous automated operation. Omnitrak provides rapid identification, helping government agencies save valuable time and resources.

It includes:
- Advanced image processing, automated encoding and matching capabilities for both tenprints and latent prints.
- Automated, lights-out processing of high quality prints and highlighting of prints that require manual intervention.
- Integration with LiveScan and LiveScan-Desktop Stations, electronic fingerprinting systems that capture high quality images in an inkless environment, and submit them to Omnitrak database for search.
- Captures palm and flat prints, slap impressions, rolled fingerprints and mugshots—palmprints and rolled images captured instantly, complete fingerprint card in five minutes
- Provides demographic information

Up to 400,000 people apply for asylum in the European Union each year. They are required to lodge their claim in the first Member State they enter and are not allowed to apply for asylum anywhere else. The Dublin Convention, signed in 1990, detailed which Member State is responsible for an asylum-seeker, and how transfers between states should take place. The first country an asylum-seeker enters is responsible for them, and retains this responsibility for 12 months. However, if it cannot be determined where the person entered, the country where they have been living for at least five months assumes responsibility.

The EURODAC system, given the green light on Dec. 11, 2000, and installed over the past two years, was put in place to enforce the Dublin Convention. EU members agree to
-examine the application of any alien who applies at their border or within their territory;
- attribute responsibility for examining an asylum application to the Member State which played the most important part in the applicant's entry or residence in the Union;
- have the Member State take charge of the applicant throughout this period and take back an applicant who is illegally in another Member State.

EURODAC will transmit electronically each asylum-seeker's fingerprints from national access points to the central unit, which can verify within minutes whether the person has already applied for asylum, and if they have, where and when the claim was lodged.

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