“Fingerprint taking is what is done to criminals. I'm not sure I want to lump all migrants into that category.”
Let me try to explain the situation again then. The majority of people entering the UK from France and other safe countries are criminals in that they have entered the UK “without leave” which is a specific offence. Asylum seekers are absolved from such offences associated with illegal entry provided they present themselves to the authorities without delay at the first opportunity in the first safe haven they find themselves. Their “Get Out of Jail Free” card is void if they fail to do this.
When arrested on suspicion of a criminal offence in the UK people are usually fingerprinted and have a DNA sample taken. This is before conviction. So it is not unreasonable, therefore, to take fingerprints of those arriving here illegally (or indeed of the very few that do arrive here legally – that is direct from a place where they are in jeopardy). I imagine the situation is the same in other EU countries. Certainly the same rules for claiming asylum prevail and imagine most have a law which prevents arrival without leave. So only those who arrive directly from a country where they are under threat and who claim asylum immediately are free of the label of “criminals”.
It is important to have some means of positively identifying people who arrive in Europe because, once they arrive they are granted virtually free rein to roam across the continent (certainly across all of the Schengen Area). For the rules on the treatment of asylum seekers to be properly applied it is necessary to be able to say when and where they arrived. Since none of them have papers fingerprinting is a good way of achieving this and it should be done immediately they step off HMS Bulwark or whatever other European vessel has plucked them out of the drink a few miles off the coast of Libya. These people, we are told, are fleeing the threat of death, injury and persecution. Having their dabs taken should not therefore trouble them - including pregnnt women and children - too much.