# taz.de -- EU migration policy in Africa: Transparent Africans
> With money and technology from Europe, Africa is biometricised – a joint
> project for african statehood and EU border guards.
IMG Bild: A german civil servant scanning a refugee's fingerprints at an asylum center in Erding
People fleeing from Africa to Europe have two options: they can take the
road across Libya and the Mediterranean Sea, where the mortality rate is
around 1:40 this year. Or travel with a borrowed, rented or fake passport.
8,373 people have caught European border guards in 2015 when entering the
Schengen area with such travel documents. The dark figure may be higher. In
Germany, the quota of asylum procedures „without any identity documents“
was more than 70 percent at the beginning of 2015, according to the number
of the Central Register of Aliens (AZR). Missing documents are „still the
most quantitatively important problem“ for deportations, states in an
evaluation of the federations of the Federal States AG repatriations.
Access to biometrics databases of the African countries of origin is
therefore the dream of EU interior ministers. The problem: Many African
countries know too little about their own citizens. According to latest
figures from the World Bank, some one-third of the population of Africa is
not registered by the state at all. Either a list is missing, the last
census is decades ago, or the government does not issue identity cards. Or
all together.
Because of the lack of digital databases in many of the African offices,
folders and registers are piling up in damp cellars. The same goes for the
borders: servers, fingerprint scanners, digital cameras, readers are
missing. In some places, the data of the expatriates and arrivals are still
registered by hand in large notebooks.
## An action plan of the EU Commission
This is to change now. Europe has undertaken the biometrics of Africa. In
September, the EU Commission announced an „action plan“ for „more solid and
intelligent information systems for border management“. When EU leaders met
with 30 African presidents on Malta last year, they promised „modern“
reporting registers and „safe“ ID documents. Money from a multi-billion
dollar trust fund is expected.
In West Africa, the regional organization Ecowas (West African Economic
Community) is just beginning with the introduction of biometric ID cards,
which will enable visa-free border crossing in the future. At the same
time, the EU is investing 5 million euros in the development of the Wapis
police information system. Up to 17 countries between Mauritania and
Nigeria will store the fingerprints collected in police investigations
centrally and make Interpol accessible.
In Ghana, Mali, Niger and Benin, pilot projects have been running since
2015. The system is also intended for border controls and is intended to
help identify fake documents. „This brings a collective comparison of the
data of paperless African migrants for deportation purposes within reach“,
says Eric Töpfer from the Institute for Human Rights of the taz.
## Commissioned Bundesdruckerei
How close, the German Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière at the
beginning of the year on his Maghreb trip proved. Morocco agreed to a
biometric data comparison for deportations, he announced. About two weeks
later, Veridos, a joint-stock company of the Bundesdruckerei and the German
IT company Giesecke & Devrient, announced that they had been commissioned
by Morocco to develop and implement a national border control system. Among
other things, biometric scanners, pass-through devices, control sluices and
servers for 1,600 checkpoints are delivered.
Moreover, according to the Bundesdruckerei of the taz, it is currently
printing raw passports for Libya's transitional government. A delegation
from the Sudan Immigration Office paid a visit to her recently.
The market research institute MarketsandMarkets estimates that the global
biometry industry will grow by almost 18 percent annually by 2020. Africa
is the ideal sales market: the population there is to rise from 1.1 billion
to 2.4 billion by the middle of the century, nowhere more people will need
passports, passports or driving licenses – the best digital readability.
## The UNHCR under pressure
More than a thousand people are currently rescuing daily from southern
Sudan to the neighboring countries, mostly Uganda. When they are struck out
with their belongings in a refugee camp of the UN refugee agency, they have
to give their fingerprints, their photos are stored, and they are given a
plastic card on which all the features are stored. Only then do they have
the right to protection and access to help.
Over a million refugees, the UNHCR has already registered biometrically
with its new registration system (BIMS) worldwide. Your data is stored
centrally on a UN database in Geneva, Switzerland. Up to 34 million
refugees from 125 countries could be registered here in the future, the
Accenture system manufacturer estimates in a promotional brochure. BIMS has
already been used in 14 African countries.
The UNHCR is always in conflict with the state authorities. Since Somali
Islamists have committed attacks in Kenya, the Kenyan authorities are
calling on the UNHCR databases, which contain information about 600,000
refugees in the country, including many Somalis. On taz's request states
that the UNHCR „does not share data with states or institutions“.
The fight against terror and irregular migration is increasingly affecting.
In Europe it is feared that IS sleeper could have come with the Syrian
refugees. As a countermeasure, incoming identity checks are recommended. In
line with the EU guidelines, the Sahel states, bombed by Boko Haram and
al-Qaeda, want to expand the initial biometrics as an anti-corruption
measure.
## Europe is happy to help
Many African countries can not afford the expensive printing presses.
Europe is happy to help with money and technology. The world market leader
in biometrics is the French-Dutch company Gemalto, which operates in four
African countries. With an annual turnover of more than € 2 billion,
Gemalto supplies a large number of African countries from Algeria to South
Africa with biometrics and registered voters, a particularly sensitive
issue.
European border protection and African governance policies are thus brought
together. „We are cooperating with the African Union on biometrics,“ the EU
Commission said. This also involved matters such as the better handling of
elections, the registration of children or the establishment of registers
of persons. „But of course the data must also be used for migration
management.“
In Nigeria, for example. The country is regarded as a high passport of the
passport, Nigerians this year the second largest group of irregular
migrants from Africa in the EU. Since 2014 the 180 million inhabitants have
been equipped with biometric ID cards. The unambiguous identifiability of
Nigerian citizens is likely to greatly simplify the implementation of the
reintroduction agreement negotiated by the EU with Nigeria. In February
2016, the EU proposed European support for the expansion of the Nigerian
registry with biometrics in an internal strategy paper.
So far, only the data of 11 million Nigerians have been recorded; now the
Ecowas personnel ID has replaced the original project. It was controversial
anyway: the cards should serve as an electronic payment card, with
Mastercard as a partner.
Torn deal in Uganda
In other countries too, the contracts between governments and technology
groups are a source of controversy because of the high costs and opaque
procurement. In Gabon, the opposition to the government's overestimated
contract with Gemalto complains. In Uganda, Bavarian technology company
Mühlbauer hit the headlines in 2010 when company manager Josef Mühlbauer
met with Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni in the middle of the night,
accompanied by the German ambassador, to conclude a 64 million Euro
biometric ID card. After the Germans until 2012, according to Ugandan data
only 400 evasives delivered, the deal blown.
The largest Mühlbauer customer in Africa was until recently Algeria, which
was now taken over by Gemalto. „Highly skeptical“ the country is opposed to
a return agreement with the EU, states in an internal strategy paper of the
EU Commission, the taz is in possession of. Only a quarter of the planned
deportations of Algerians in 2014 were actually carried out. The deportees
do not want the country, but the biometrics pass. Here the interests
reunited. How the EU wants to move more towards Algiers is also in the
paper: Brussels wants to leverage money for a „biometric database“.
9 Dec 2016
## AUTOREN
DIR Paul Welch Guerra
## TAGS
DIR Lesestück Recherche und Reportage
DIR Schwerpunkt Flucht
DIR MigrationControl
DIR Grenzschutz
DIR migControl
DIR Lesestück Recherche und Reportage
DIR Schwerpunkt Flucht
DIR Schwerpunkt Flucht
DIR EU-Flüchtlingspolitik
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA
DIR Das EU-Flüchtlingspolitik in Afrika: Abschied von Dadaab
Das größte Flüchtlingslager der Welt liegt in Kenia. Eine Generation
Somalier ist dort groß geworden. Nun soll es abgewickelt werden.
DIR EU-Flüchtlingspolitik in Libyen: Zurück in den Krieg
Libyen ist durch den Bürgerkrieg stärker zerrüttet als irgendein anderes
Maghreb-Land. Trotzdem will die EU Flüchtlinge dorthin zurückschicken.
DIR Business mit Flüchtlingen im Sudan: Die Ehre der Schleuser
Tamir und Khalid treten wie seriöse Geschäftsleute auf – sie brachten 5.000
Flüchtlinge nach Europa. Beide sind stolz darauf. Und sie sind
ausgestiegen.
DIR Debatte EU-Flüchtlingspolitik in Afrika: Europas neuer Umriss
Unter Merkels Führung verteidigt die EU neuerdings ihre Außengrenzen tief
in Afrika. Das soll die Migration nach Europa radikal stoppen.