BVGer, A‑7588/2015: accu­ra­cy (Art. 5 DSG); evi­dence (here con­cer­ning ZEMIS)

3.4 If, in the case of a reque­sted or ex offi­cio inten­ded cor­rec­tion, neither the accu­ra­cy of the pre­vious nor that of the new per­so­nal data can be pro­ven, in prin­ci­ple neither the one nor the other data may be pro­ce­s­sed (cf. Art. 5 para. 1 FADP). Howe­ver, this is not always pos­si­ble, as cer­tain per­so­nal data must neces­s­a­ri­ly be pro­ce­s­sed in order to ful­fill important public tasks. This also applies in par­ti­cu­lar to names and dates of birth recor­ded in the ZEMIS. In such cases, the public inte­rest in pro­ce­s­sing pos­si­bly inac­cu­ra­te data out­weighs the inte­rest in its accu­ra­cy. Under the­se cir­cum­stances, Art. 25 para. 2 FADP the­r­e­fo­re pro­vi­des for the affixing of a note indi­ca­ting that the accu­ra­cy of the per­so­nal data pro­ce­s­sed is dis­pu­ted. If the­re is more to be said for the accu­ra­cy of the new data, the pre­vious infor­ma­ti­on must first be cor­rec­ted and the new data must then be pro­vi­ded with such a note. Whe­ther the pre­vious­ly regi­stered infor­ma­ti­on is to remain retrie­va­ble or is to be dele­ted altog­e­ther is gene­ral­ly left to the lower court. If the oppo­si­te is the case, i.e. if the cor­rect­ness of the pre­vious­ly ente­red data appears to be more pro­ba­ble or at least not less pro­ba­ble, the­se must be left in place and a note of deni­al added. A decis­i­on on its appli­ca­ti­on must be made ex offi­cio and irre­spec­ti­ve of whe­ther a cor­re­spon­ding appli­ca­ti­on has been filed (on the who­le, judgments of the FAC A‑4256/2015 of Decem­ber 15, 2015 E. 3.4, A‑3555/2013 of March 26, 2014 E. 3.4 and A‑181/2013 of Novem­ber 5, 2013 E. 7.1, each m.w.H.; cf. fur­ther­mo­re judgment of the BGer 1C_240/2012 of August 13, 2012 E. 3.2).

The fact that in the asyl­um pro­ce­du­re it is appar­ent­ly assu­med in case of doubt that an unac­com­pa­nied asyl­um see­ker is a minor (accor­ding to the quo­ted state­ment of the Fede­ral Coun­cil) is under­stan­da­ble in view of the pos­si­ble legal con­se­quen­ces (such as prio­ri­ty tre­at­ment of asyl­um appli­ca­ti­ons, hig­her requi­re­ments for accom­mo­da­ti­on and care, more dif­fi­cult repa­tria­ti­on or even wai­ver of this under the Dub­lin pro­ce­du­re). The situa­ti­on is dif­fe­rent in the data pro­tec­tion pro­ce­du­re con­cer­ning the cor­rec­tion of per­so­nal data in the CEMIS. Here, for good rea­sons, it is requi­red that the most pro­ba­ble – i.e. pre­do­mi­nant­ly pro­ba­ble – per­so­nal data be ente­red. After all, it should be poin­ted out in this con­text that the que­sti­on of the age of a per­son recor­ded in the ZEMIS also ari­ses pre­cis­e­ly for the pro­ce­e­dings under ali­ens or asyl­um law (cf. ruling of the Fede­ral Supre­me Court 1C_224/2014 of Sep­tem­ber 25, 2014 E. 3.3; rulings of the Fede­ral Admi­ni­stra­ti­ve Court A‑4313/2015 of Decem­ber 14, 2015 E. 5 and A‑1732/2015 of July 13, 2015 E. 5.3), which is why a ZEMIS ent­ry may have an impact on the lat­ter. This cir­cum­stance must be taken into account by the com­pe­tent migra­ti­on aut­ho­ri­ties, name­ly the lower court, if an asyl­um see­ker can (at least) cre­di­bly show that he or she is still a minor, but his or her majo­ri­ty seems more likely and the date of birth is accor­din­gly recor­ded in the CEMIS.

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