Digital platforms and biometrics are increasingly deployed to support EU processes and practices which aim to regulate mobility. On the one hand, member states, as the end users of these systems, are required to develop and implement complex technologies, including the collection and sharing of biometric data across state authorities(immigration, law enforcement). On the other hand, biometrics shift the focus of control from physical borders to the bodies of migrants and travellers themselves (Rygiel, 2011), who become easily (re)-identifiable, as their biometric identities become entangled with a variety of law enforcement goals.
This article examines aspects of the digitalisation of the asylum procedures in Greece and the evolution and consolidation of hotspot approach, in light of the new EU Pact on Asylum and Migration. Building on policy analysis and fieldwork notes collected between 2022 and 2024, it argues that new technologies are not only preventing people from accessing asylum but a host of other rights, and work in tandem with other racialised and bureaucratic tools to further criminalise asylum seekers.