Electronic tagging in UK for asylum-seekers?
Home Office Anon tells Sun its the cheap, easy answer to stop Channel crossings.
Tl;dr that claim is bogus - but lays the ground for massive extension of the surveillance state.
THREAD 1/
125,000 asylum-seekers in UK. Application numbers historically low, but pending claims high because Home Office officials refuse to decide cases, procrastinating for years instead of issuing permits to refugees & others they can’t remove. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-brief… 2/
Some asylum-seekers are detained. But vast majority are on “immigration bail”, a scare-criminal-sounding re-labelling of “temporary admission” by May’s Immigration Act 2016 3/
Home Office already has legal power to impose electronic monitoring as a condition of immigration bail. GPS tag fixed around ankle.
If this is justified…. 4/
HOAnon gets Sun to say electronic tagging is cheap and effective.
Like the £60 million scheme for prisoners condemned … by the Sun? 5/
Right now Home Office uses electronic tagging for people with a criminal record facing deportation. It takes up to 72 hours to fit a tag (they say).
How much would this cost the public to do to asylum-seekers?
The Sun doesn’t say. 6/
So what’s the point? Sun says it’s because “more than a million illegal immigrants are working in UK”
That would be 1 in 30 of all UK workers - wild if true. ons.gov.uk/employmentandl… 7/
If 1 in 30 UK workers are “illegal immigrants” why did police and Home Office only find 53 such workers in the last quarter year? 8/
In HomeOfficeAnon fantasy land, there’s a million people who came on a boat to work in UK.
Because “in EU ID cards are required for jobs”.
THATS TRUE IN UK TOO. Employers have to check documents of employees. 9/
Home Office knows illegal working isn’t - on the evidence - a pull factor for asylum-seekers. They’ve done the research, which is why they won’t publish it. @freemovementlaw explains freemovement.org.uk/experts-to-hom… 10/
So it’s not about ID checks, HOAnon. That’s just lying fluff.
It’s surveillance - that’s the value of GPS tagging.
As @BIDdetention warns here biduk.org/articles/805-b… 11/
We know Home Office already uses records of how asylum-seekers spend they’re measley £39 per week to spy on them. As @privacyint explain privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/… 12/
To justify electronic monitoring, HO Anon calls for *curfews* on asylum-seekers. It’s easy to show “GPS was outside allowed zone at x time” than show someone was working.
Add a new “crime” to justify the new tool. 13/
Under current law, immigration judges could be called on to decide whether imposing an electronic tag is justified. Will Patel try to escape that independent oversight? Immigration Bill amendment? 14/
Should you worry at plans to electronically track the people who come to the UK because they believe it’s a free country?
If you’re not an asylum-seeker?
Or a dual citizen?
Or someone with a criminal record?
Or someone who might want to protest?
That’s up to you. 15/15
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