Why Is Truss Government Looking At Relaxing Immigration Rules?

A secret blanket policy of seizing phones of those entering Britain through the English Channel has been exposed in the judicial courts recently. Home Secretary Priti Patel, has been pulled up for explanation as to why this is being done, an act that can be seen as a human riot’s violation.

In a particular incident, three such individuals were caught on the channel. Out of them, one who was a victim of human trafficking and had escaped through this clandestine method reported the same to the courts, also disclosing how this method was used to extract data off her phone as well.

All three complaint of the inability to contact their families back home. Their lawyers also claimed that thousands of others arriving to the UK in small boats had their phones confiscated, and hundreds of others had their data cloned. Phone of these three were confiscated between April and September of 2020.  They were also given no access to emergency contacts or other numbers of their phones.

Ms. Patel has been shown to be impatient and extremely strict in handling in inflow of migrants coming through illegal channels. At the time of their transit to Britain, officials had threatened them with criminal penalties unless they provided the codes to unlock their phones, lawyers for the claimants said. The data stored in their phones was later extracted.

But the court has ruled that the policy was unlawful, breaching human rights and data protection laws. It has also been revealed that Ms Patel has referred herself to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for breaching data protection law. But she decided not to inform the many hundreds of asylum seekers that were affected by the breach.

The home secretary argued that immigration officials had the right – under section 48 of the Immigration Act 2016 – to search the arrivals by small boat, take their phones, and extract data from the devices.