The United Kingdom has launched a 12-month program to electronically tag migrants released on immigration bail in an attempt to keep them from "vanishing into the rest of the country."
The Home Office – the country's ministerial department responsible for immigration, security, and law and order – said the pilot program, which began on Wednesday, will test whether electronic monitoring is an effective way to give immigration bail to those who arrive in the country using "unnecessary and dangerous" routes.
The Home Office said the trial will test whether tagging aids regular contact with those given bail and progresses their claims more effectively. It also said the migrants being tracked will not include pregnant women and children.
Those tagged will have to regularly report in person to authorities, may be subject to a curfew or excluded from certain locations, and failure to comply could see them returned to detention or prosecuted.
The trial program comes after the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on Tuesday granted an injunction that resulted in a chartered aircraft transporting migrants to Kigali, Rwanda being unable to depart from Wiltshire.
Several government officials expressed frustration with the ECtHR's intervention, including Home Secretary Priti Patel, who accused the court of being politically motivated in its "absolutely scandalous" decision, and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, who suggested new laws could ensure interim measures from the Strasbourg court could effectively be ignored by the government.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson also expressed that it is important to "make sure asylum-seekers can't just vanish into the rest of the country."
However, critics say the plan treats those fleeing persecution like criminals. Like many other countries, Britain also uses electronic tags in accordance with court or prison orders.
According to reports, the first to be tagged under the bail program will likely be those who had avoided being removed to Rwanda.
Record number of dangerous crossings
The move comes after new figures revealed the number of people crossing the English Channel to reach Britain this year has passed 11,000.
Analysis of Ministry of Defence data by the PA news agency shows 11,092 people have been brought to shore by Border Force or the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) after being rescued from small boats in the Channel, the world's busiest shipping lane.
On Thursday, 146 people on four small boats were brought to Britain.
The daily number has been decreasing steadily throughout the week after a high of 444 on Tuesday. That was the highest number since 562 on April 14.
At least 48 people were brought ashore at Dover, near the narrowest part of the Channel, on Thursday, including women and children as well as adult men.
Warm weather and calm seas this week may have encouraged an increase in attempted crossings.
With 13 days of June left to go the number of people crossing the Channel is almost double this time last year. By the end of June 2021, 5,911 people had made the crossing so far that year.
PA analysis shows 341 boats have been used in Channel crossings so far this year, with an average of 32 people on board each one.
The government recently introduced the Nationality and Borders Act which made it illegal to enter the UK without permission.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Johnson said the U.K. was a "very, very generous welcoming country," pointing to recent programs for people arriving from Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Ukraine, but he also added: "When people come here illegally, when they break the law, it is important that we make that distinction."