BBCA police and crime commissioner (PCC) has urged the government to look into making asylum seekers wear electrotonic tags.
Sussex’s Katy Bourne, who suggested that any initiative should start with males, said tags would give asylum seekers “greater freedom” to travel further from holding centres and to help them get temporary jobs.
The call comes amid concerns about government plans to temporarily house 540 asylum seekers at Crowborough army training camp, with a decision being made in 2026.
The Home Office said the Immigration Act 2016 required electronic monitoring to be applied to people facing deportation, but without that circumstance it would breach human rights or be impractical.
A spokesperson added that electronic monitoring could also be used for non-foreign national offenders, where it was justified.
“This government will close every asylum hotel, and we are working to move asylum seekers into more suitable accommodation such as military bases, to ease pressure on communities across the country,” the Home Office said.
The government added that all asylum claimants were subject to mandatory security checks to confirm their identity and to link it to their biometric details for the purpose of immigration, security and criminality checks.
Bourne said: “With thousands of people awaiting asylum processing, the potential for them to become involved in crime – as a perpetrator or victim – is inevitable, meaning police will be looking for people with very little official ID or existing digital footprint in the UK.”
Earlier in 2025, Sussex Police launched an electronic tagging pilot for persistent shoplifters and Bourne said the results were “promising”.
“The police monitoring the tags can tell exactly where the offenders are and, so far, the shoplifters are changing their behaviours,” the PCC added.
Bourne said if people refused to wear a tag “it would be an indication that they are intending to abscond or are involved in unlawful activity”.
The Conservative PCC added: “I have a New Year’s resolution for the Home Secretary – why not be bold and pilot tagging of the men due to arrive soon at Crowborough?
“You might end up being thanked by taxpayers, the police and the migrants themselves.”
Migrant charity Ramfel says tagging people seeking asylum when they are not accused of a crime is “cruel, punitive and will simply funnel yet more public money into the hands of private companies”.
“If the government is serious about saving public funds and reducing crime, they should grant people seeking asylum the right to work whilst their claims are being processed,” they added.
“This would allow them to enter the formal labour market, support themselves and in turn reduce the need to house people in hotels, army barracks and other makeshift facilities.”
The Home Office said public safety remained its first priority.
