Stop Surveilling People Because of Their Immigration Status
The British government has handed private firm Serco a £200 million contract to help electronically monitor non-British citizens. In an op-ed, a man in an immigration-status limbo explains what it means to be tagged and constantly surveilled.
The UK Home Office uses ankle monitors to surveil migrants. (Ryan McFadden / MediaNews Group / Reading Eagle via Getty Images)
As shareholders gather today for Serco’s Annual General Meeting, I sit here, with an immigration tag around my ankle, calling on this private firm to stop profiting from unjust and inhumane immigration policy.
Since 2021, Britain’s Home Office and its contractors have been expanding the so-called “hostile environment” for migrants through invasive surveillance technology.
Now Serco — a company responsible for more than a decade of abuse and financial scandals, including defrauding the government — is to profit from a £200 million contract to provide the technology used to surveil people without British citizenship.
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