Johnson defends refugee plan
GPS to be used for tracking asylum-seekers in Britain
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday defended his government’s plans to electronically tag asylum-seekers who cross the English Channel, days into a new, yearlong pilot program 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 tag and be required to regularly report to authorities. Some people could also be subject to curfew and exclusion from certain locations, the guidelines said.
Those who fail to comply would risk detention and prosecution.
Johnson, speaking to reporters 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.” He added that he was “proud” of Britain’s track record on taking in refugees.
His defense of the program comes days after the European Court of Human Rights granted an injunction Tuesday that grounded a chartered flight that would have carried asylum-seekers to Rwanda under Britain’s new hard-line policy. The flight was scheduled to be the first of a series, as part of a controversial five-year deal the two countries signed in April.
Refugee organizations and human-rights lawyers have harshly condemned the new monitoring measures, saying that they treat people seeking safe haven like criminals. They have also warned that the surveillance and rules 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 Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, a British-based organization that works with refugees and asylum-seekers.
According to the guidelines, caseworkers are required to consider an array of factors when deciding whether a person should be electronically tagged, including whether a claim of torture has been accepted by Britain’s Home Office.
But the guidance goes on to say that such a factor “does not in itself prohibit imposing such a condition,” adding, “it may still be appropriate to maintain electronic monitoring due to other relevant factors.”