Sharpe's Opinion

Human Provenance Project Dropped, But Still Going Ahead?

For some reason, I missed the story that the UK Border Agency was not going ahead with the ‘Human Provenance Project’, its plan to use DNA tests to determine asylum seekers’ nationalities which upset me quite a lot last month. According to the The Register, though, things aren’t quite so clear-cut:

After it “temporarily suspended” its controversial nationality DNA testing pilot, the UK Border Agency has today changed its stance again, saying the programme will go ahead, but the results won’t be used to decide asylum seekers’ fate.

DNA fingerprints and isotope analysis will be collected from asylum seekers, but “they will not be used for evidential purposes on individual cases”, a Home Office spokeswoman told The Register.

Starter for 10: why bother collecting samples if you’re not going to use them?

Anyone?