More than 70 illegal migrants have been handed thousands of pounds in compensation after judges declared the seizure of their mobile phones was unlawful.
The High Court determined that confiscating their devices and downloading their personal data breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Lord Justice Edis and Mr Justice Lane ruled in 2022 that the policy violated the controversial ECHR, sparking concerns that up to 1,300 migrants could be entitled to claim.
As a result, the final bill could rise into the millions of pounds.
Fighting the legal case cost the Home Office £735,000, a Freedom of Information request by The Sun revealed.
Some 32 asylum seekers have already received settlements totalling £210,800, working out at £6,587.50 per person.
The Home Office confirmed that pure compensation costs came to £163,900, with an additional £46,900 paid through confidential settlement agreements for damages and legal fees.
A further 41 claims remain outstanding.
Should these be resolved at the same rate, the compensation bill would climb to nearly £481,000.
When the verdict was delivered, it was reported that 1,323 migrants whose phones were taken could seek damages, bringing the potential total payout to as high as £8million.
The policy at the centre of the case applied to migrants arriving between April and November 2020.
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
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Border officials searched new arrivals and confiscated their mobile phones and SIM cards.
Devices were held for three months or longer, with many never returned to their owners.
Until July 2020, authorities conducted full data downloads from all seized phones.
The approach was later modified so complete downloads only happened when a “person of interest” was identified aboard a small boat.
Three asylum seekers, identified only as HM, MA, and KH, launched a judicial review in November 2020 which put the seizure policy on hold.
The High Court hearing took place in January 2022, with judges delivering their verdict two months later.
They found the mobile phone policy unlawful because it had never been published.
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PICTURED: Prospective migrants charge up their phones before crossing the Channel. The devices were held for three months or longer, with some never handed back
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The ruling found that searches and seizures were illegal because they operated as a blanket measure, and violated migrants’ rights to family and private life under the ECHR.
Then-Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel accepted that the “blanket seizure policy… was not in accordance with the law”.
Judges identified a “failure of governance” surrounding the unpublished policy – they said phones and PIN codes were seized “without any lawful authority”, while asylum seekers were “bullied” into surrendering passcodes, the court heard.
Information extracted from seized devices was stored in an intelligence database called Project Sunshine.
Following the ruling, judges ordered the Home Office to contact all migrants whose phones had been confiscated.
The court directed that affected individuals should be told: “If you have not taken legal advice on your position, you are strongly advised to do so now.”
Then-Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel accepted that the ‘blanket seizure policy… was not in accordance with the law’
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PADaniel Carey of Deighton Pierce Glynn, which represented two claimants, said: “Nearly 2,000 phones were taken from migrants in an indiscriminate blanket policy that the High Court has now found to be unlawful on multiple fronts.
“All of this had real impacts on very vulnerable people, who lost touch with their families and couldn’t get their asylum documentation, while the phones languished on a shelf for many months, many which now cannot be returned.”
Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick has now condemned the payments, saying: “This is further proof, as if it were needed, of how rulings made by European judges are working against the British people.
“It is a farce and total waste of taxpayers’ money. A Reform Government will stop this nonsense by getting rid of the rule of European judges.”
Reform MP Robert Jenrick said the payouts were a ‘farce and total waste of taxpayers’ money’
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GETTYWilliam Yarwood of the TaxPayers’ Alliance called the situation “utterly perverse”, adding: “Instead of deterring illegal entry, the system has ended up financially rewarding it.”
The Government has since passed laws making it legal to seize illegal migrants’ phones.
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.”