By SOPHIE CHURCH

Published: 23:35 GMT, 30 December 2025 | Updated: 23:41 GMT, 30 December 2025

Asylum seekers should be electronically tagged so they can be tracked, a policing chief has suggested.

Katy Bourne, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex, has proposed they are used on male asylum seekers set to be housed at a military training camp in the area.

She urged Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to 'be bold' and use the arrival of 540 asylum seekers at Crowborough Training Camp as a ‘pilot’ to see if the scheme helps discourage crime.

Ms Bourne suggested the move would deter migrants from criminality – while also giving them ‘greater freedom’ to travel further from holding centres and get temporary employment.

She drew a comparison with a ‘promising’ trial scheme launched earlier in 2025 where Sussex Police tagged persistent shoplifters.

Ms Bourne added: ‘The police monitoring the tags can tell exactly where the offenders are and, so far, the shoplifters are changing their behaviours.’

The PCC 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’.

Speaking to BBC Sussex, she added: '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.'

'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.'

Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne has dared Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to use the arrival of 540 asylum seekers into Crowborough Training Camp as a 'pilot' to see if electronic tagging discourages crime 

Multiple protests have been held against the government's plans to house 540 asylum seekers at Crowborough training camp in Sussex

Bourne said the results of Sussex Police's Operation STOP pilot were 'promising', adding that, so far, shoplifters are 'changing their behaviours'

Currently the Immigration Act 2016 requires electronic monitoring to be applied to individuals facing deportation, unless doing so would breach their human rights or is impractical, the Home Office said.

The Tories backed Ms Bourne's proposals, with shadow home secretary Chris Philp telling the Daily Mail that 'anything that keeps tabs better on these illegal immigrants is welcome, especially given the sex crimes they commit against women and girls'.

He added: 'The government response to Katy’s tagging plan says that tagging illegal immigrants in asylum accommodation would break their human rights.