Asylum finger-printing finds over 17,000 multiple claims

An EU finger-printing database set up last year is helping to identify the thousands of asylum seekers who apply for asylum in several EU countries simultaneously in the hope of being accepted more quickly.

Known as Eurodac, the database shows that, since January last year, 17,287 of the almost 247,000 processed asylum seekers have made multiple applications. Almost 25,000 illegal immigrants are also registered on the database.

An EU official said this rate would "flatten out over...