Boris Johnson Defends Electronically Tagging Migrants: 'Asylum Seekers Can't Just Vanish'

Earlier, the Home Office launched a 12-month pilot scheme on Wednesday, to test whether electronic monitoring could be effective when offering immigration “bail” to migrants arriving in the UK via “unnecessary and dangerous” routes.

Boris Johnson has defended his government plans to electronically tag some migrants arriving across the Channel in small boats or as stowaways on lorries.The Home Office launched the 12-month pilot scheme on 15 June to determine whether it might be an effective way of "improving and maintaining contact" with asylum seekers.

Weighing in on what human rights campaigners have described as "draconian" measures, the Prime Minister said it was essential that people could not simply "vanish" into 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.

He also hailed the government’s Rwanda deportation deal, aimed at tackling soaring numbers of illegal migrant crossings, adding:

“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."

The PM vowed the government would press ahead with its “lawful” policy of deporting asylum seekers to the east African country, despite the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg granting an injunction on Tuesday that stopped the maiden flight, set for 14 June.

"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. There was this weird last-minute hiccup we had with Strasbourg. Let's see where we get with that, said Johnson.

He added that his Home Office had every intention of “pursuing the policy."

Previously, Home Secretary Priti Patel described the grounding of the first chartered flight set to airlift asylum seekers to Kigali, Rwanda, to have their bids processed there as an "absolutely scandalous" move.

Judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday granted an injunction that resulted in a chartered aircraft to Kigali being unable to depart Wiltshire. Patel vowed to "find ways to overturn" the decision.

"You've got to look at the motivation. How and why did they make that decision? Was it politically motivated? I'm of the view that it is, absolutely. The opaque way this court has operated is absolutely scandalous. That needs to be questioned," the Home secretary was cited as saying by The Daily Telegraph.

The controversy over the Rwanda migrant deal comes as analysis of Ministry of Defence data by the PA news agency revealed 11,092 people had crossed the Channel to reach Britain this year.