for the examination of the claim. Any member state may refrain from transferring an asylum seeker and examine the claim even if transfer criteria apply.335 In order to trace asylum seekers and migrants, foreign nationals above the age of 14 are fingerprinted and their data are entered into an EU-wide database. The regulation is slightly different for unaccompanied children: they may not be transferred to the member state they first entered but instead to where they first lodged an asylum application.336 However, the regulation does not provide for unaccompanied children to make an asylum application in the country of choice.337 The regulation also provides for unaccompanied children to be reunited with family members if it is in their best interests, yet the definition of a family member is very restrictive and only applies to parents, guardians or spouses.338 Several NGOs and the UNHCR have documented violations of international standards in the application of the provision for unaccompanied minors in several countries: children had been transferred to the country they first entered and not to the country in which they first applied for asylum, no assessment of their best interests preceded their transfer, their previous experience was not taken into consideration, and no legal representation for the child during the decision-making was made available.339 335 Council Regulation (EC) No. 343/2003, art. 3(2). 336 “Where the applicant for asylum is an unaccompanied minor, the Member State responsible for examining the application shall be that where a member of his or her family is legally present, provided that this is in the best interest of the minor. In the absence of a family member, the Member State responsible for examining the application shall be that where the minor has lodged his or her application for asylum,” Council Regulation (EC) No. 343/2003, art.6. 337 Member states may but are not obliged to bring together family members on humanitarian grounds; member states are also urged to unite, if possible, unaccompanied children with relative(s) unless it is not in the child’s best interests. Council Regulation (EC) No. 343/2003, art. 15,(1)(3). 338 Council Regulation (EC) No. 343/2003, art. 2(i). 339 Separated Children in Europe Programme, “The Implementation of the Dublin II Regulation and the Best Interests of Separated Children,” March, 2006, http://www.separated-children-europeprogramme.org/separated_children/publications/reports/Dublin_II.pdf (accessed August 14, 2008); UNHCR, “The Dublin II Regulation,” April 2006, http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?docid=4445fe344&page=search (accessed August 14, 2008); European Council on Refugees and Exiles and European Legal Network on Asylum, “Summary Report on the Application of the Dublin II Regulation in Europe,” March 2006, http://www.ecre.org/files/ECRE%20Summary%20Report%20on%20Dublin%2007.03.06%20-%20final.pdf (accessed August 14, 2008); European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), “The Dublin Regulation: Twenty Voices – Twenty Reasons for Change,” March 2007, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/activities/cont/200805/20080522ATT29686/20080522ATT29686EN.pdf (accessed August 14, 2008). 97 Human Rights Watch December 2008