According to new Home Office proposals, refugees arriving in small boats across the English Channel will be electronically tagged and prosecuted if they do not comply.
Those who arrive in Britain via unsafe or ‘unnecessary’ means will be given tags as part of a 12-month experimental program. However, this could include refugees who have been subjected to torture or trafficking.
The 130 people who were supposed to be on the first deportation flight to Rwanda until it was halted by a last-minute intervention by European judges are the first to be tagged.
The approach has been dubbed ‘punitive’ and ‘draconian’ by left-wing campaigners, who argue that those fleeing to Britain for safety are being treated like ‘criminals’.
Critics also insist there is ‘no concrete evidence’ the measures will lead to improved compliance, The Independent reports.
If tagging terms are broken, asylum applicants may be arrested and deported, according to Home Office instructions.
‘It’s awful that this administration is set on punishing men, women, and children who have escaped war, murder, and persecution as criminals,’ said Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council.
‘Not only does this draconian and punishing policy show no compassion for the most vulnerable people, but it also does nothing to prevent those who are frantically seeking shelter in the United Kingdom.’
The new guidelines state that people wearing an electronic tag must follow any instructions issued by the Home Office for a set amount of time.
If necessary, conditions could include a curfew or an exclusion zone around a specific region.
It follows a difficult week for the Government, which faced criticism across the political divide after a plane destined to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda ended up ground following last-minute intervention by the European Court of Human Rights.
The 130 asylum seekers who had originally been earmarked for the flight are understood to be first on the list for electronic tagging.
‘We will retain as many people in detention as the law allows, but if a court directs that an individual due to fly on Tuesday’s flight be released, we will tag them appropriately,’ a representative for the Home Office said.
Last Thursday, the deportation plan to Rwanda came to a halt after an 11th-hour intervention by an out-of-hours European Court of Human Rights judge, notifying the crew that the Boeing 767 could not take flight as scheduled from MOD Boscombe Down, Salisbury, as the clock ticked down to 10.30pm.
Despite reports that only seven migrants were scheduled to be evacuated from the UK on Tuesday, furious ministers had previously stated that the aircraft would go on even if only one person was on board.
However, in a last-minute twist, all asylum seekers scheduled to be evacuated from the first plane to Kigali exited from the plane before it took off, signaling the flight’s cancellation for the first time.
The abrupt change puts ministers on a collision path with the Strasbourg court, which is distinct from the European Union and part of the Council of Europe.
In July, the High Court will convene a judicial review to determine the validity of the Rwanda program.
‘It’s an atrocity that an out-of-hours judge in the European Court has intervened to delay the repatriation of unlawful migrants to Rwanda when domestic courts have consistently ruled in the Government’s favor,’ a Downing Street source said.
The taxpayer is likely to have paid up to £500,000 for the Rwanda charter plane. To add to the rage in Whitehall, it looks that the Home Office will be unable to appeal the European court’s verdict at this time.
Despite the last-ditch legal effort, a Rwandan government official told ITV that the country was “undeterred” and “dedicated to making the collaboration work.”
Ms Patel, for her part, made a forceful protest to the Strasbourg judge’s decision, saying she was sad the aircraft to Rwanda was unable to go but would not be ‘deterred from doing the right thing.’