Criminologist fears electronic tagging of migrants 'going to get huge'

RNZ News

16-07-2025

Victoria University criminologist Liam Martin.
Photo:
Supplied
Introducing electronic tags for asylum seekers will open up a Pandora's box of issues, a criminologist says.
The government has introduced legislation that would allow the
electronic monitoring of migrants and asylum seekers
who pose a security risk, or might run away.
Liam Martin, who researches electronic monitoring at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University, said by some estimates New Zealand's criminal justice system already had the highest per capita rate in the world, or ran a close second to the US.
"We've got about six-and-a-half thousand people on electronic monitoring in New Zealand, which is approaching the number that we have in prison.
"In the UK and the US, immigration electronic monitoring is just exploding. It's getting massive in the UK, for example. As far as I can tell it, it operates on a scale that rivals criminal justice now. So what I foresee is thousands of people ending up on electronic monitoring in immigration eventually."
Electronic tags - either ankle clamps or digital devices - had been promoted as a technology fix for rising prison populations, but ended up being an add-on, he said.
The bill's wording seemed relatively contained, he added, but he predicted it was "going to get huge".
"I just think there's a flood of social and political and economic forces that are pushing towards an explosion within immigration. We're intertwined with these things, so when I see things happening in the UK and happening in the US, I'm always thinking, 'so how long till we end up latching onto that?'.
"It's a massive expansion of surveillance, another sphere of our lives that is becoming opened up to for-profit surveillance. It's in these niches where new surveillance systems intersect with old patterns of racial inequality that I think that you see the the more severe forms take hold."
Martin, who has a multi-year grant from the Royal Society to research electronic monitoring, said the company that supplied electronic monitoring equipment for New Zealand criminal justice, Buddi, was already a major supplier of migrant tracking tech in the UK.
The Immigration Amendment Bill is at select committee stage.
Photo:
RNZ
Immigration lawyer Lucy Tothill said when it was first mentioned, electronic monitoring sounded positive as a step away from detention.
"But the way that it's being drafted and discussed is quite loose, kind of leaves it open to a wider scope for monitoring asylum seekers. So my opinion on it is that it's hard to take a really strong position without knowing exactly what it will look like, but there are concerns about the privacy, security and human rights involved with monitoring asylum seekers. In particular, seeing the increased criminalisation of migrants and asylum seekers.
"It's one thing to require people to report somewhere if you're worried about them absconding, it's quite another thing to know where they are at every minute of the day - that opens up other concerns about data collection and data use and what we do with all of the information about where people are and what they are doing with their day."
Her concerns were on the potential numbers of people it could affect, and what grounds would prompt authorities to deem it necessary. Some devices used overseas have facial recognition and fingerprint scanning technology that require migrants to check in several times a day.
A spokesperson for immigration minister Erica Stanford said it was an operational matter for Immigration New Zealand (INZ). She previously told RNZ that rough estimates were five asylum seekers and 130 migrants a year would be subject to electronic monitoring as an alternative to detention. "There will always be a number [of people] that we have a slight more concern about about being a flight risk or other things, and so then there is this intermediary option."
INZ's border and funding immigration policy manager Stacey O'Dowd, said safeguards included judicial oversight and regular review.
"It responds to a recommendation by Victoria Casey KC in her review in the detention of asylum seekers. Such conditions could only be imposed by a judge, who must be satisfied that the conditions are reasonable, proportionate, and the least restrictive option available.
"Electronic monitoring conditions would last for three months and require an additional application to the judge for any extension of the initial term. A higher legal threshold is proposed for individuals claiming refugee or protected person status. This recognises the vulnerability of individuals seeking international protection."
Implementation details would be worked through once the bill was passed, but would be tightly scoped and carefully controlled, she said.
"The bill does not propose the use of facial recognition, fingerprint detection, or real-time tracking in relation to electronic monitoring. Monitoring would not involve constant surveillance; instead, alerts would only be triggered if someone crosses a boundary they are not permitted to leave."
Corrections said it did not have information on other countries' rates of electronic monitoring. Its director of community operations David Grigg said there were 6276 monitored wearers, 1845 of whom were on bail, a slight increase from March last year when there were 6037 people wearing trackers, including 1786 on bail.
The Immigration Amendment Bill is at select committee stage and public submissions close on 28 July.
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