Boris Johnson defends plans to electronically tag asylum seekers

Boris Johnson defends plans to electronically tag asylum seekers

Boris Johnson has defended government plans to electronically tag some asylum seekers who arrive in the UK.

The Home Office is launching a 12-month pilot scheme that aims to determine whether this is an effective way of “improving and maintaining contact” with claimants.

Documents also suggest that the government wants to obtain data on how frequently asylum seekers abscond.

Campaigners have described the measures, which could affect refugees crossing the Channel, as “draconian”.

However, the Prime Minister said the UK was a “generous” country and that it was essential that people could not “vanish” into the rest of the country.

“This is a very, very generous welcoming country. Quite right too. I am proud of it, but when people come here illegally, when they break the law, it is important that we make that distinction,” he said, speaking at RAF Brize Norton after returning from a trip to Kyiv.

“That is what we are doing with our Rwanda policy. That is what we are doing with making sure that asylum seekers can’t just vanish into the rest of the country.”

Just a few days ago the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg granted an injunction that stopped the deportation of asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda.

The flight had been scheduled to depart last Tuesday evening but it was cancelled 15  minutes before take-off.

The PM also said the government would press ahead with its policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda, saying it is lawful.

“Every single court in this country said that there was no obstacle that they could see. No court in this country ruled the policy unlawful – which was very, very encouraging,” he said.

“There was this weird last-minute hiccup we had with Strasbourg. Let’s see where we get with that.”

He added: “We are very confident in the lawfulness of what we are doing and we are going to pursue the policy.”