Home Office ‘may fit asylum seekers with electronic tags’

Preferred option for handling growing numbers of applicants is to increase number of detention places, but tagging has been mooted as short-term fix

The Home Office is considering fitting asylum seekers arriving in the UK via unauthorised means with electronic tags, it has been reported. Officials are mulling it as a way to prevent people who cannot be housed in limited detention sites from absconding, according to the Times.

The Illegal Migration Act places a legal duty on the government to detain and remove those arriving in the UK illegally, either to Rwanda or another safe" third country. But with spaces in Home Office accommodation in short supply, officials have reportedly been tasked with a deep dive" into alternatives.