Illegal Migrants to Be Electronically Tagged to Stop Them ‘Disappearing Into the Country’

Migrants walk up the beach in Dungeness, on the southeast coast of England, on June 15, 20
BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Some migrants who have been caught illegally entering Britain via boats across the English Channel or in the backs of lorries will be electronically tagged in order to prevent them from disappearing into the country.

After losing track of tens of thousands of alleged asylum seekers who absconded from migration centres, the Home Office has begun a trial programme of tagging those who enter the country illegally.

According to the BBC, the scheme will apply to those who enter the country via “dangerous or unnecessary” routes, such as in the back of a lorry or on a flimsy rubber dinghy from France.

The 12-month trial programme, which began on Thursday in England in Wales, is intended to measure whether it has a noticeable impact on migrants checking in with their asylum handlers and to see if it reduces the number of migrants who abscond from their immigration bail.

People who have been tagged may be subject to a curfew, and those who fail to comply with their conditions could be taken to detention, or prosecuted.

The electronic tagging system will not include women who are pregnant or migrants believed to be under the age of 18 and caseworkers will have some discretion on making a determination if it would have a negative impact on the mental health of some illegals.

Defending the move on Saturday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that it is crucial to “make sure asylum seekers can’t just vanish into the rest of the country”.

Mr Johnson said that while the UK is a”very, very generous welcoming country,” pointing to refugee schemes for people fleeing Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Hong Kong, he said that “when people come here illegally, when they break the law, it is important that we make that distinction”.

“That is what we are doing with our Rwanda policy. That is what we are doing with making sure that asylum seekers can’t just vanish into the rest of the country.”

In April, the Home Office signed a deal with Rwanda to house illegal migrants while their asylum claims are being processed, rather than continuing to put up aliens in tax-payer-funded accommodations on British soil.

The first deportation flight to the East African nation was scheduled to depart earlier this week, however, after numerous legal challenges in the British court system, an Iraqi migrant successfully blocked the flight after appealing to the European Court of Human Rights, which the UK is still bound by despite Brexit as the court is technically outside of the European Union.

Commenting on the intervention of the ECHR on Saturday, Home Secretary Priti Patel said that she believes the court acted out of political motivation rather than on purely legal precedent.

“The opaque way this court has operated is absolutely scandalous. That needs to be questioned,” Patel said.

“We don’t know who the judges are, we don’t know who the panel are, we haven’t actually had a judgment – just a press release and a letter saying we can’t move this person under rule 39. They’ve not used this ruling previously, which does make you question the motivation and the lack of transparency,” she added.

While some, including Brexit leader Nigel Farage have called on the government to finally remove the UK from the European Court’s jurisdiction, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has argued that laws could be passed allowing the government to ignore such rulings in the future and possibly prevent illegal migrants from launching appeals to the ECHR in the first place under the upcoming British Bill of Rights.

The wrangling over deportations comes as waves of illegals continue to pour into the country, with another 230 migrants being brought ashore after crossing the English Channel on Friday. So far this year, over 11,000 aliens have landed on British beaches, more than two and half times as many arrived at this point last year.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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