From now on any German citizens who applies for a passport will have to have their fingerprints taken. The fingerprints will be stored on a chip inside the passport.

The government’s introduction of the fingerprinting system is the second phase of the countries new biometric passports. For the last two years all passports have contained a chip that stored biometric data about the passport holder and a digital photograph. Now, the holders fingerprints will also be on record.

The Biometric passports are an effort to make passports more secure and to prevent forgery.