Thread by @SimonFRCox

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