More than 70 small boat migrants have landed a taxpayer-funded windfall after the High Court ruled the Home Office acted unlawfully by taking their mobile phones on arrival in Britain.
The controversial policy, introduced during a surge in Channel crossings in 2020, saw asylum seekers searched, and their mobiles and SIM cards seized, with data in numerous cases said to have been fully downloaded.
According to reports, devices were frequently kept for three months or more, and some were never given back.
Judges later discovered the approach breached the European Convention on Human Rights, opening the door to compensation claims that could ultimately cost millions.
So far, 32 asylum seekers have obtained payouts totalling £210,800 – the equivalent of £6,587.50 each.
An additional 41 cases remain unresolved. If they are paid at the same pace, the bill will increase to £480,887.
At the time of the ruling, it was said that 1,323 migrants could potentially seek damages, fuelling fears the final cost could reach as high as £8 million.
A Freedom of Information response revealed the Home Office has already spent £735,000 contesting the case, according to The Sun.
It confirmed that of the £210,800 paid out, £163,900 accounted for ‘pure compensation costs’, while a further £46,900 was paid under Calderbank offers – confidential ‘without prejudice’ agreements – covering both compensation and legal costs without distinction.
The legal battle arises from a judicial review launched in November 2020 by three asylum seekers, identified only as HM, MA and KH.
The High Court heard that almost 2,000 phones were taken between April and November 2020 under what was described as a blanket policy.
Until July 2020, all seized devices and SIM cards were subjected to full data downloads.
After that date, downloads were restricted to cases where a ‘person of interest’ had been identified on a boat.
In January 2022, the matter came before the High Court, with judgment handed down two months later.
Lord Justice Edis said then-Home Secretary Priti Patel accepted that the ‘blanket seizure policy… was not in accordance with the law’.
The judges discovered that seizing phones interfered with migrants’ rights to family and private life under the ECHR and that phones and PINs were taken ‘without any lawful authority’.
In their written order in October 2022, the judges ruled: ‘The Mobile Phone Policy was unlawful because it was unpublished.’
I’m at a loss for words since this will now infuriate every taxpayer.
This is absurd, these migrants are entering the UK illegally, and Labour are spending taxpayers’ money like there’s no tomorrow. Where are the human rights of the British people? Only our government would compensate someone attempting to illegally invade because they have all their priorities wrong, and the British people deserve better.
For goodness sake, they’re coming here illegally, with no papers and don’t even get investigated. Our taxes should be going to what is essential and enhancing our quality of life, those in true need, not filling the pockets of opportunists arriving on our shores. Perhaps we British people should be reimbursed for all the crime they are bringing to our shores. No, I didn’t think so!
Their illegal entrance to the UK should not have been compensated, and they should not have been permitted to claim anything once they were here. If our government keep giving, they will just keep coming, and all of this compensation money should have gone straight towards the cost of them being here and what it incurs. None of them should get a penny of it, and British taxpayers should get their money back that has gone on these migrants.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 