A new study on the U.K.’s decision to use electronic tags to track migrants found that the move amounted to a form of “psychological torture,” reported The Guardian.
Groups of lawyers and charities have already called for the controversial GPS tagging to be scrapped, according to the British daily.
Britain’s criminal justice system has used tagging for years but the tagging of people on immigration bail facing deportation was only introduced in August 2021.
The report, “Every Move You Make: the human cost of GPS tagging in the immigration system,” raised serious concerns over the system that can track a person’s every move.
It said the GPS tagging was causing serious damage to people’s mental and physical health as they feel stigmatized by having a large, heavy tag strapped to their ankles.
The report also raised concerns that this form of invasive surveillance went beyond the needs of the government and wearers feared that behavior linked to their immigration claims was also being monitored.
The large and cumbersome tags were also susceptible to malfunctions. They also took up to four hours each day to charge and cannot be removed from people’s ankles while being charged.
The research was led by the U.K.-based charities Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) and Medical Justice and the Public Law Project.
