British taxpayers were dealt another huge blow after U.K. High Court judges ruled hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation is due to illegal migrants who had their mobile phones seized as they stepped ashore after human traffickers delivered them across the English Channel.
The Sun reports that High Court judges Lord Justice Edis and Mr Justice Lane issued a ruling in 2022 declaring that taking away the phones of illegal migrants was “illegal” and a violation of European human rights laws. The newspaper detailed that 32 “asylum seekers” have been awarded 210,800 pounds in compensation.
According to British government officials, 41 cases are presently in the pipeline. The Sun pointed out the compensation bill will raise to 480,887 pounds if they receive the same through their claims. Fighting the case reportedly incurred in costs of 735,000 pounds for the Home Office.
As many as 1,300 illegal migrants may apply for similar compensation, ballooning the sum as high as eight million pounds.
The Sun explained that the case was brought in response to a group of three migrants who had their devices seized between April and November 2022. The Home Office defended the policy at the time arguing that it helped gather evidence on smuggling gangs.
Critics of the controversial ruling have branded it as “farcical,” with Reform MP Robert Jenrick further blasting it as a “total waste of taxpayers’ money.”
“This is further proof, as if it were needed, of how rulings made by European judges are working against the British people,” he said.
British lawyer Luke Gittos expressed outrage over the court’s ruling speaking to GB News on Monday, deeming it as an “extremely expensive case for the British taxpayer,” and argued that a “gap in the law” has been “exploited.”
“What we’ve seen is the compensation payouts that are being recorded today, but obviously that only touches on the cost to the taxpayer, because obviously the Government has to defend these claims when they are brought. We have to use High Court time, which in itself is extremely expensive,” Gittos said.
“There was a lot of lawyers involved in this case, they don’t work for free, so this was an extremely expensive case for the British taxpayer,” he continued.
The lawyer explained that a group of migrants argued brought a claim in 2022 against the Home Office policy of seizing the phones of illegal migrants. The lawyer summarized that the court justified its ruling against the policy under grounds that it breached the European Convention on Human Rights and U.K. data protection laws.
“We do have very strict laws about when and how people can have their phones seized, that does play a legitimate role, I think, for British citizens,” the lawyer argued.
“But it’s very clear that when people come into this country on a small boat, they are by inherently connected to organized crime because they’re using organized crime in order to cross that Channel,” he continued. “So there is a clear and legitimate purpose for the need to to take those phones, and it’s clear that this is really a lacuna, a gap in the law that’s been exploited and it’s resulted in this crazy ruling.”
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