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By Andy McCue, 21 January 2004 17:40

NEWS East African visitors travelling to the UK will have to provide biometric fingerprint data from March as part of the government's latest crackdown on illegal asylum applications.

The Home Office claims there are large numbers of fraudulent applications for asylum in the UK from Somali nationals and people claiming to be Somalis – with recent government evidence suggesting over 10 per cent of 'Somali' claimants are from other countries.

From March, those applying for visas to come to the UK from Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda will be required to provide a record of their fingerprints when applying for a visa and will have their travel documents photocopied.

The use of biometrics aims to prevent people who enter the UK legitimately on their true passport destroying their travel documents to claim asylum using a false identity.

Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes said in a statement that the technology will help tackle abuse of the UK's asylum and immigration system.

"Together with the rollout of specialist language analysis, recording the fingerprints of visa applicants from this region is part of a concerted Government strategy to cut fraudulent asylum applications from this region," she said. "We also believe that individuals are exploiting international refugee travel documents to claim asylum in the UK under a false identity. Ensuring we have a secure way of recording someone's identity will close help this loophole."

A similar system was introduced last July for those applying for visas from Sri Lanka – resulting in the identification of seven undocumented asylum applicants who destroyed their passports after entering the UK, and two prosecutions.

Biometric fingerprint technology is already in use with the EU-wide Eurodac system, which aims to prevent 'asylum shopping' - refugees applying for asylum in several countries to increase their chances of being granted a visa.