Johnson defends UK's plan to electronically monitor refugees

LONDON • Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson has defended his government's plans to electronically tag asylum seekers who cross the English Channel, days into a new, year-long pilot programme that has drawn widespread condemnation from refugee and human rights groups.

Under the new guidelines, those who travel to Britain via what the government terms "unnecessary and dangerous routes" would be fitted with a GPS or Global Positioning System tag and be required to regularly report to the authorities.

Some could also be subject to curfew and exclusion from certain locations. Those who fail to comply risk detention and prosecution.

Mr Johnson on Saturday defended the monitoring as a way to keep people arriving in the country in the migration system, saying the plans would ensure "asylum seekers can't just vanish into the rest of the country".

His comments came after the European Court of Human Rights last Tuesday granted an injunction that grounded a chartered flight scheduled to carry asylum seekers to Rwanda under the new policy. The flight was to be the first of a series, as part of a controversial five-year deal the two countries signed in April.

Refugee organisations and human rights lawyers have condemned the new monitoring measures, warning that the surveillance could have devastating effects on people who have already endured abuses.

"It's appalling that this government is intent on treating men, women and children who have fled war, bloodshed and persecution as criminals," said Mr Enver Solomon, chief executive officer of the Refugee Council, a British-based organisation.

According to the guidelines, case workers are required to consider an array of factors when deciding if a person should be electronically tagged, including whether a claim of torture has been accepted by Britain's Home Office.

But such a factor "does not in itself prohibit imposing such a condition" and "it may still be appropriate to maintain electronic monitoring due to other relevant factors", the guidance adds.

People to be monitored are fitted with tags when they are granted bail and released from detention.

"The amount of suffering that can be caused to someone who is a torture survivor... far outweighs the very minimal benefits for the government," said Ms Sue Willman, a human rights lawyer and chair of the Human Rights Committee at The Law Society, a British legal group.

"The person is being effectively surveilled 24/7 - while they're on the toilet, while they're in bed."

She called the measure "entirely disproportionate" in its harm.

Mr Johnson on Saturday said he was confident his government's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was legal despite the European court's injunction, a decision he described as a "weird last-minute hiccup".

British Home Secretary Priti Patel accused the court of being politically motivated.

The Home Office declined to provide the exact number of asylum seekers who have so far been assigned electronic tags.

A spokesman said that the 130 people who at one point were at risk of being on the Rwanda flight "could be in the scope" of the programme.

The number of people crossing the English Channel - the busiest shipping lane in the world - to reach Britain this year has passed 11,000 - more than double the figure from the same period last year.

Last year, more than 28,000 people crossed the English Channel in small boats, according to the British government. At least 44 people either died or went missing.

NYTIMES