Anonymous Aliens? Questions of Identification in the Detention and Deportation of Failed Asylum Seekers

摘要

Immigration detention and deportation arencentral tenets of the British government’snimmigration strategy. Although in theorynimmigration detainees face imminentndeportation, in practice many obstacles frustratenremoval, prolonging the limbo of detention.nDrawing on two years’ anthropological researchnwith failed asylum seekers in one suchnImmigration Removal Centre, I argue that thenconcepts of identity and identification arenuseful in understanding these situations ofnimpasse. Many detainees struggle to meetnofficial expectations and requirementsnregarding the nature of identities and how theyncan be proved. They frequently have nonidentity documents (or those they have arenconsidered false), come from countries withnminimal registration systems, or are generallynassumed to be lying. Many also have theirnidentities ‘disproved’ by UK Border Agencyncaseworkers as part of having their asylumnclaims refused. The combination results innsome individuals lacking a bureaucraticallynrecognised identity or alternatively beingnsaddled with multiple identities. This hindersntheir removal as a ‘genuine’ identity must benre-established in order for the embassies tonissue travel documents. I examine whatnhappens when people fall between having onenidentity disputed and another officiallynconfirmed, arguing that when stuck in this waynpeople become vulnerable to criminalisationnand exceptional treatment such as indefinitenincarceration. My premise is that as identityndatabases and verification techniques infiltratenBritish society, from high-level security debatesnto daily banality, those people beyondnidentification techniques become increasinglynbureaucratically problematic, making themnsimultaneously threatening to and vulnerablento state apparatus. Copyright © 2012 John Wileyn& Sons, Ltd.