The government will compensate more than 70 asylum seekers whose mobile phones were unlawfully taken upon arrival in Britain, the High Court has ruled.
The ruling found that the Home Office acted unlawfully when it confiscated mobiles and SIM cards from asylum seekers crossing the channel in 2020, many of whom were held for three months or longer, and some were never returned.
High Court judges ruled that the former government’s “blanket” seizure policy breached the European Convention on Human Rights, which laid new groundwork for costly compensation claims.
The Home Office has already approved payouts for 32 people, which have amounted to £210,800.
A further 41 cases remain outstanding and amount to a bill totalling £480,887, the Mail reported.
The Home Office has already spent £735,000 contesting the case, the Sun reported.
This follows a judicial review launched in November 2020 by three asylum seekers, which found that nearly 2,000 phones were confiscated by the government between April and November 2020.
All seized devices and SIM cards were subjected to full data downloads until 2020.
From that point, downloads were limited to instances in which a “person of interest” had been identified on a boat.
In January 2022, the case arrived at the High Court, and the ruling was given two months later.
According to Lord Justice Edis, the former Home Secretary Priti Patel recognised that the “blanket seizure policy... was not in accordance with the law”.
The ruling found that phones and PINs were taken “ without any lawful authority”, and their confiscation restricted the asylum seekers’ rights to family and private life, thereby breaching the ECHR.
The judges ruled in October 2022 that: “The Mobile Phone Policy was unlawful because it was unpublished.”
They added: “Searches and/or seizures were unlawful because they operated in a blanket way.”
The court also highlighted a “failure of governance” surrounding the unpublished policy.
During proceedings, evidence was given to support claims that asylum seekers were “bullied” into disclosing passcodes, allowing personal data to be obtained and added to an intelligence system, known as Project Sunshine.
The court was ordered by the Home Office to “use all reasonable endeavours” to contact asylum seekers whose phones had been confiscated and to advise them: “If you have not taken legal advice on your position, you are strongly advised to do so now.”
