Satellites to keep watch on refugees

A new network of satellites will be used by the European Union to track the movements of refugees and asylum seekers as part of the crackdown on illegal immigration into western Europe.

Refugee rights groups were alarmed by the move, claiming that it signalled a further hardening of Europe's borders against refugees and migrants which has been supported by Tony Blair and many other EU leaders.

Officials in the European Commission and the European Space Agency are now drawing up detailed plans to extend the use of satellites originally designed for tracking coastal erosion, air pollution and climate change for security and policing operations.

The satellites, including a high-sophisticated £1.4bn system called Envisat which was unveiled by the science minister Lord Sainsbury in February, will now be used to support military peace-keeping missions and track refugees outside the EU's borders.

The new initiative, known as the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme, will also use the next generation of ESA satellites, called the Future Earth Observation Satellite, which will be able to take detailed pictures from space that show objects less than 10ft in size.

Philippe Busquin, the EU commissioner for research, said the initiative was "a good example of how Europe can develop technologies that contribute to improving the quality of life and meeting security needs".

But the Refugee Council said the initiative was particularly worrying since it emerged in May that ministers were considering plans to send warships to patrol the Adriatic and Mediterranean to stop large groups of asylum seekers, refugee ships and people smugglers entering the EU.

The council said Europe should tackle the root causes of migration, rather than punish the victims of wars or poverty. "We would hope that this new initiative would not be used to further restrict access to EU territory for potentially vulnerable refugees in need of international protection," said Jessica Yudilevich, its head of communications.

Keith Best, director of the Immigration Advisory Service, said the initiative could have positive benefits. It would allowing the EU or Nato to track a exodus of refugees fleeing conflicts such as the civil war in Kosovo in 1999, when relief agencies were caught by surprise and inundated with people.

But he added: "My real fear is they could be treated like some nasty cloud from Chernobyl, which would be indicative of the attitude that asylum seekers are some sort of pollutant. We should be saying: 'How can we protect them?'"