Big Brother to fingerprint EU children

Children must give prints

for passports

By JASON LEWIS - More by this author »
Last updated at
22:31pm on 24th November 2007

Comments

Children over the age of six will have their fingerprints taken when
applying for a passport to comply with new EU regulations.

The European Commission says youngsters must be fingerprinted
for all new EU passports and national ID cards – even
those issued in the UK.

Until now, the Government has insisted that only children over
the age of 11 applying for biometric passports – which are due
to be introduced in 2009 – have to be fingerprinted.

• Revealed: The sinister truth about what they
do with our children's fingerprints

But under the proposals, revealed in a report by the
Commission, children as young as six could be forced to
attend special identity centres.

Once there, their hands would be electronically scanned
and their personal details entered on an identity database.

The Commission, which is responsible for the general day-to-
day running of the European Union, says the move is essential
to prevent child trafficking.

But Tony Bunyan, of civil rights group Statewatch, said: 'The
taking of fingerprints from all children from age six upwards
is highly questionable. It is a moral and political question, not
a technical one'.