Veteran broadcaster Christopher Biggins has expressed his outrage at the latest taxpayer payout to illegal migrants after it was revealed that some are being compensated for having their mobile phones seized.
Speaking to GB News, the 77-year-old declared the payout “appalling” and “ridiculous”, telling the Breakfast panel: “You couldn’t make it up!”
More than 70 migrants who crossed the Channel have been awarded around half a million pounds in compensation after their phones were seized by UK authorities.
Judges in the High Court have ruled the blanket policy in 2020 was unlawful, and determined that confiscating their devices and downloading their personal data breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Some 32 asylum seekers have already received settlements totalling £210,800, working out at £6,587.50 per person, and 41 cases are still outstanding.
Reacting to the stark figures, Mr Biggins told GB News: “You couldn’t make it up, it’s ridiculous.
“There’s a whole agenda here anyway, with these people coming over on boats, which is absolutely appalling, and then we give them things. We give them mobile phones, they get free phones, free Sim cards.”
Arguing in favour of Border Force seizing phones from illegal migrants, host Ellie Costello said: “If you’re a British citizen and the police suspect you of criminal activity, they are allowed to seize your phone, of course they are, for evidence, and they will never give it back.
Christopher Biggins expressed his outrage at illegal migrants being compensated for having their phones confiscated
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GB NEWS / PA
“So if you have crossed the Channel illegally, and therefore that is breaking the law, why can’t Border Force seize your phone? Try and find out where you’ve come from and who you are, your identity?”
Mr Biggins simply responded: “Once again, this is not fair for the British people.”
Highlighting the fury felt by struggling Britons about the cost of the migrant crisis, conservative commentator Chloe Dobbs told GB News: “I mean, you name it, they have it. And there have been all these stories that infuriate people enough to find out that oh, they’re living a nicer life than me, they get these nice buffets.
“But then to find out they are being handed £6,500 grand in cash, over 70 of them, just because their mobile phones were taken from them – once again, of course, it’s the ECHR rules that are being used here by the lawyers.
PICTURED: A small boat carrying illegal migrants crosses the English Channel in 2020. The compensation applies to migrants who arrived between April and November of that year | GETTY
“That is so infuriating to families at the moment who are counting the pennies to pay their rent, to pay their bills, to put food on the table, to find out someone else has just got £6,500 for free.”
Weighing in on the discussion, host Eamonn Holmes fumed: “You get all these politicians from all these parties saying, ‘oh yes, that European Court of Human Rights, we’ll not have that for too much longer, we’ll not listen to what they’re going to say’.
“And yet they all do, they all continue to do it, nothing’s changed. They talk the talk, no one walks the walk.”
Ms Dobbs agreed, responding: “Well, Keir Starmer is a human rights lawyer. Is he going to ignore the ECHR? Absolutely not.
The GB News panel expressed their outrage at the payout
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GB NEWS
“And Lord Hermer has said on record that in Government they will never ignore the ECHR, but other countries do ignore the ECHR, countries like France and Germany.”
Eamonn then suggested: “I could understand them coming along and saying, ‘right, we need to see your phone, we need to see who you were communicating with, we need to see if there’s any contacts of traffickers on this’, and there will be.
“And you can give them a £30 phone in return or something, if they need something like that. But you need that phone to get that information.”
In a statement, a Home Office spokesman said: “This compensation is to be paid as a result of the previous Government’s policy, which now no longer exists.
“We have introduced tougher legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act which allows asylum seekers’ mobile phones to be legally seized when they arrive in the UK.
“These game-changing criminal offences will mean organised criminals fuelling illegal migration can be intercepted faster than ever before.”