The British government may be forced to pay out millions to illegal migrants who are suing the state for their supposedly unlawful detention at an asylum centre.
Nearly 200 migrants who illegally crossed the English Channel in small boats from the beaches of France have filed a joint lawsuit against the Home Office, claiming that they were subjected to “inhumane” conditions at the Manston asylum centre near Dover.
The illegals have claimed that the former military base accommodation was overcrowded and unclean with outbreaks of disease as well as instances of sexual assaults and physical abuse, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Each migrant could receive £500 for every day they were determined to have been unlawfully detained at the centre, although this figure could increase depending on the judges’ decision in the case.
While only around 200 have so far been added to the claim, around 18,000 migrants were at some point housed at Manston, potentially meaning the bill to the taxpayer could rise further.
Similar cases brought forward before Britain’s left-wing judiciary have been successful. For example, last October, a migrant won £203,995 in damages from the state after being unlawfully detained and allegedly being subjected to inhumane treatment at the Brook House deportation centre.
The latest case will reportedly be based mainly on appeals to the European Convention on Human Rights, which Britain remains bound by despite leaving the EU with Brexit, as the ECHR is technically a separate institution from the bloc, even though it is so closely aligned that it shares the same flag, anthem, and even the same campus as the EU Parliament in Strasbourg.
Despite the ECHR frequently being used to block deportations from Britain, including rapists, murderers, and terrorists, successive post-Brexit governments in Westminster have refused to withdraw from the Convention.
Recently installed Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has reportedly mooted plans to provide judicial advice to reduce the ability of migrant lawyers using the ECHR and other human rights codes to stymie deportations. However, the Labour government of Sir Keir Starmer has still maintained its intentions to remain within the bounds of the European Convention.
Conversely, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has vowed to withdraw Britain from the ECHR and to repeal the associated Tony Blair-era human rights laws to facilitate the prompt removal of hundreds of thousands of illegals from the country.
The lawsuit comes amid record-breaking waves of illegal migrants crossing the English Channel, with over a thousand being brought ashore at Dover on Saturday, which also happened to the first day in office for Shabana Mahmood as Home Secretary. The latest crossings have taken the total for the year over 30,000, marking the fastest pace of illegal arrivals since the crisis began.
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