The UK government has not ruled out GPS tagging of Channel migrants. Home Office authorities have been tasked with ensuring that asylum seekers who cannot be detained due to refugee accommodation shortages do not abscond or disappear.
The UK government is considering fitting migrant arrivals with GPS tags to monitor them, British newspaper The Times reported on Sunday (August 27).
The Times said GPS tracking was part of efforts to stop migrants who cannot be housed in the country's detention centers from disappearing. The UK is facing a shortage of migrant accommodation and officials have been assessing alternative ways to prevent irregular migrant flows to the country.
One of the possible options is to fit all arriving migrants with an electronic ankle bracelet, the newspaper wrote.
Government officials have been assigned with carrying out a "deep dive" into making sure migrants who cannot be detained do not abscond or disappear, the newspaper reported.
Instead of using GPS monitoring, officials may demand asylum seekers to report regularly to the Home Office to receive financial support or accommodation, The Times said.
UK considers 'all options' to control migrant arrivals
When asked about the reports, Home Secretary Suella Braverman told BBC Breakfast: "We will of course need to increase some of our detention capacity."
"We're considering a range of options – all options – to ensure that we can exert some control over those people who are arriving illegally so that we can thereafter remove them to a safe country like Rwanda." The five-year trial Rwanda asylum plan, announced in April 2022, would see some asylum seekers sent to the east African nation on a one-way ticket to claim asylum there.
Braverman told British broadcaster Sky News that the UK's "landmark" Illegal Migration Act "empowers us to detain those who arrive here illegally and thereafter swiftly remove them…
"That will require a power to detain and ultimately control those people. We need to exercise a level of control if we are to remove them from the United Kingdom."
The Illegal Migration Act is integral to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's efforts to prevent boats carrying irregular migrants crossing the English Channel. Anyone who arrives on small boats will be detained and then deported either back to their homeland or a third country (such as Rwanda).
The idea of using GPS devices to monitor migrant arrivals has been met with setback within the UK government. Officials have raised concerns that it could be too costly, or that there might not be enough devices, and that it could violate human rights.
Electronic tagging of migrants has been trialed before, but only on those due to be deported from the UK.
With dpa