Migrant crackdown on just 49

LABOUR’S plans to tag asylum seekers and illegal immigrants were derided by critics yesterday as figures showed just 49 people were targeted in the first year.

At least 570,000 foreigners are thought to be living in Britain illegally.

The tagging crackdown was designed to stop immigrants disappearing from official view.

But at the current rate, critics claimed, it would take 5,000 years to tag all the estimated 250,000 failed asylum seekers waiting to be deported.

There was added embarrassment as ministers admitted that for the first nine months of the scheme – launched last October – electronic tagging was voluntary, and the 26 people who agreed to take part faced no punishment if they broke the rules.

The scheme has since been tightened up with illegal immigrants being tagged without their consent, and ministers hope to boost numbers over the coming months.

But the Home Office refused to say what the crackdown had cost or how many of those tagged had disappeared.

Electronic tags have long been used on convicted prisoners who are let out of jail early wearing an ankle tag which alerts the authorities if they breach a nighttime curfew at their home address. A Home Office spokesman defended the failure to tag more asylum seekers, saying: ‘It’s not a matter of so few or so many. Each individual case is looked at on its merits.’

But Shadow Home Affairs Minister Humfrey Malins said tagging only 49 people was a ‘ dismal return’.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the Migrationwatch think- tank, said: ‘ Tagging one person a week is hardly impressive, even for a pilot scheme.’