Home Office under investigation for searching hundreds of migrants’ phones
The Home Office is under investigation after migration officers took data from hundreds of mobile phones seized from migrants who crossed the English Channel.
As first reported by Sky News as part of a freedom of information request, the case relates to 850 individuals who were part of a departmental programme called Project Sunshine.
It is understood that when migrants arrived at Tug Haven in the Port of Dover in 2020 – a facility that has subsequently closed- they were told to hand over phones and passwords to immigration officers.
Officers then extracted “location data, conversation history, photographs etc” from hundreds of devices, which was designed to gather information against potential smugglers entering the country.
However, some migrants complained that because their phones were seized, they were unable to complete asylum applications, and a group of migrants launched a Judicial Review, which is expected to receive a judgement in the coming weeks.
The review will look at the legality of blanket searches, as well as the proportionality of this approach to migrants.
The review could lead to a £17m fine for the department, and comes as Home Secretary Priti Patel faces ongoing criticism about her response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis.