Numbering and Boat IDs: The Dehumanizing Use of ID Numbers in Australia’s Border Regime

Abstract

The practice of identifying people by ID numbers rather than their names, which the authors term here “numbering,” has been extensively recorded in carceral and bordering institutions. While the argument for using identification numbers (ID numbers) is that they enable the reliable mapping between a person and designated institutional artifacts, according to people who have been subjected to numbering, its effect is to dehumanize, erasing individuals’ identities so that they might be more effectively abused as objects. To explore these logics, our article provides a critical reading of Boat IDs in Australia’s notorious border regime based on the first-hand accounts of people subjected to numbering. We apply a ‘technology-in-practice’ lens to analyze ID numbers as biopolitical apparatuses of carceral recognition and erasure that work to materialize power relations of domination and subjugation.