This Regulation should apply to third-country nationals and stateless persons regardless of whether they have made an application for international protection who are apprehended in connection with an unauthorised crossing of the external border of a Member State by land, sea or air, except third-country nationals for whom the Member State concerned is not required to take the biometric data pursuant to of the European Parliament and of the Council (7) for reasons other than their age, as well as to those third-country nationals who have been disembarked following search and rescue operations, and do not fulfil the entry conditions set out in . For those third-country nationals who have been disembarked following search and rescue operations, the application of this Regulation should be without prejudice to the obligations of Member States according to international law regarding search and rescue operations. This Regulation should also apply to those persons who seek international protection at the border crossing points or in transit zones without fulfilling the entry conditions or where third-country nationals, after having been authorised to enter pursuant to on humanitarian grounds, on grounds of national interest or because of international obligations, make an application for international protection.
7. Regulation (EU) 2024/1358 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 on the establishment of ‘Eurodac’ for the comparison of biometric data in order to effectively apply Regulations (EU) 2024/1351 and (EU) 2024/1350 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Directive 2001/55/EC and to identify illegally staying third-country nationals and stateless persons and on requests for the comparison with Eurodac data by Member States’ law enforcement authorities and Europol for law enforcement purposes, amending Regulations (EU) 2018/1240 and (EU) 2019/818 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Regulation (EU) No 603/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L, 2024/1358, 22.5.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1358/oj). ↩︎