A/HRC/4/26 page 8 public and private databases.4 The criteria for the search included: being male; age 18-40; current or former student; Muslim denomination; link through birth or nationality to one of several specified countries with a predominantly Muslim population. Approximately 32,000 persons were identified as potential terrorist sleepers and more closely examined. In none of these cases did the Rasterfahndung lead to the bringing of criminal charges for terrorism-related offences.5 36. Terrorist profiling based on national or ethnic origin and religion has also been used in the context of immigration controls. In the United States, the immigration authorities have adopted a series of policies and practices designed to counter terrorism that single out certain groups of immigrants based on their country of origin or nationality and, indirectly through the choice of the targeted countries, their ethnicity and religion. Under the Voluntary Interview Program, male immigrants, who were not suspected of any criminal activity, were selected for questioning solely because they were of a certain age, had entered the United States after January 2000 and originated from countries “in which intelligence indicated that there was an Al-Qaida terrorist presence or activity”.6 Although the authorities did not identify these countries, almost all the 8,000 men eventually interviewed were Arab and/or Muslim.7 The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System imposed fingerprinting, photographing and registration requirements for all males who are citizens of, or were born in, certain designated countries;8 all of these countries - except for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea - have predominantly Arab and/or Muslim populations.9 4 See the decision of the Bundesverfassungsgericht (the Federal Constitutional Court) of Germany in decision BVerfG, 1 BvR 518/02, 4 April 2006, available at http://www.bverfg.de/ entscheidungen/rs20060404_1bvr051802.html, para. 28 (explaining that in the Federal State) of Nordrhein-Westfalen, 5.2 million personal data sets were collected). 5 Ibid., paras. 8-10. 6 U.S. General Accounting Office, Homeland Security: Justice Department’s Project to Interview Aliens after September 11, 2001 (document GAO-03-459), April 2003, pp. 7-8. 7 Migration Policy Institute, America’s Challenge: Domestic Security, Civil Liberties, and National Unity after September 11 (2003), p. 41. 8 Attorney General John Ashcroft, “Attorney General’s prepared remarks on the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System”, 6 June 2002. 9 The list includes: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, Eritrea, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen (68 Fed. Reg. 2363 (16 January 2003); 67 Fed. Reg. 77136 (16 December 2002); 67 Fed. Reg. 70526 (22 November 2002); 67 Fed. Reg. 67766 (6 November 2002)). See U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “Special registration groups and procedures”, available at http://www.ice.gov/graphics/specialregistration/archive.htm.