How coercive fingerprinting could violate migrants' dignity

This paper aims at investigating whether and under which circumstances coercive fingerprinting in respect to migrants, especially asylum seekers, could amount to degrading treatment. The question has arisen following a 2015 Staff Working Document released by the European Commission, which doesn’t exclude the application of coercion for the purposes of fingerprinting incoming migrants. Neither was this possibility excluded by the Commission in proposal com 2016 (272), for a Eurodac Regulation replacing eu Regulation 2013/603. The analysis is divided in two steps. First, the paper deepens the question whether coercive fingerprinting applied to a vulnerable person, regardless of his/her status, could amount to degrading treatment. Secondly, the focus is placed on migrants, especially when they are in seek of international protection.