THE Home Office is to spend millions more in taxpayers’ cash to track the movements of refugees and asylum-seekers in Britain.

It has quietly announced a six-month extension to a 24-hour global positioning system (GPS) surveillance scheme despite the failure of year-long pilot project to prove it serves any useful purpose.

The surveillance scheme targets anyone who arrives by “unnecessary and dangerous routes” to Britain, meaning via small boats or lorries.

The government has already paid millions to outsourcing company Capita Plc to operate the pilot scheme.

The decision to extend it has been condemned by refugee and asylum support organisations.

Bail for Immigration Detainees legal director Pierre Makhlouf said: “Like most Home Office policy, GPS tracking is unevidenced, ineffective, discriminatory and harmful.

“There is mounting evidence of widespread physical and psychological harm caused to people who are tracked — including asylum-seekers and many born and/or raised in the UK. This is why they have had to extend their power grab quietly.

“The resources we spend on paying outsourcing giants like Capita to harass and abuse people seeking safety could and should be used to improve people’s lives instead.”

Privacy International lawyer Lucie Audibert said: “All this money spent, and all this harm perpetrated, only go to supporting the stigmatisation of people in vulnerable situations, and the government’s anti-migrant posturing.

“Instead of lining the pockets of private companies like Capita, the government should be putting resources towards supporting everyone in this country to lead lives in conditions of dignity— not surveillance,” added Migrants Organise digital organiser Mallika Balakrishnan.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The GPS tracking pilot has been extended to help us maintain contact with selected asylum claimants. This helps to deter absconding, keep more regular contact with those given bail and progress their claims more effectively.”