The immigration debate in France just got a bit hairier. After the government publicly rounded up and expelled over 10,000 Roma in this year alone, French authorities have announced they will begin to use a biometric fingerprinting system to discourage those who were expelled from ever coming back. –JCL

Al-Jazeera English:

French authorities will soon take the fingerprints of Roma and other migrants, in an attempt to discourage them from coming back to France after being expelled.

Martine Rodier, head of the ministry of immigration and integration, made the announcement on Friday, two days after the French government had been cautioned by the European Commission for its deportations of European citizens from Bulgaria and Romania.

Rodier said that the “biometric system will allow us to detect repeated requests for repatriation assistance and help us prevent the undue payment of return aid to people who come once, twice.”

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