Central Register of Foreign Nationals (Germany)

The Central Register of Foreign Nationals (German: Ausländerzentralregister (AZR)) is a German database, containing personal information about approximately 20 million foreign nationals.[1] Of these, as of February 2009, approximately 4.5 million are EU citizens.[2]

The Central Register of Foreign Nationals provides data to over 7000 authorities and organizations, including police and customs authorities with over 80,000 users.[3]

According to section 26 of the law governing the Central Foreigners Register, personal data stored about individual foreigners in Germany can also be passed to the authorities of foreign states.[4]

History

The predecessor of the Central Register of Foreign Nationals was the Ausländerzentralkartei which was established in 1938 by the Nazi government.[5] In 1953 the Central Register of Foreign Nationals was established.

Criticism

The Federal office responsible for administering the Central Register of Foreign Nationals was awarded a Big Brother Award for their operation of the database, for the given reason of "institutionalized official discrimination of non-German citizens in Germany".[6]

References


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