Migrants who arrive in Britain on small boats will be able to keep their mobile phones, a minister has said.
Dame Angela Eagle, a Home Office minister, said the Government “doesn’t want absolutely every phone” from those who cross the Channel.
Ministers unveiled plans in January to crack down on people smuggling by allowing Border Force and immigration enforcement to compel new arrivals to hand over their devices.
The proposals in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill were aimed at helping investigators to identify and track down people-smugglers behind Channel crossings.
It would reverse a High Court ruling last year, which said the Home Office had been unlawfully operating a blanket policy of seizing phones from people arriving on small boats.
Officials were found to not have parliamentary authority to extract data from phones and retain the devices, which meant those affected were unable to contact family members or access documentation.
Dame Angela Eagle doesn’t want a blanket policy of seizing all migrants’ phones – Dan Kitwood/Getty
Dame Angela said the Home Office would not be seeking the phones of every migrant who arrived on a small boat.
She told Times Radio: “The Bill, which is in the House of Lords at the moment, will enable us to target those that we think are facilitating.
“So we don’t want absolutely every phone, but we do want the phones of the people that we think are organising and facilitating, and this extra money will enable us to do much quicker analytics of the phones that we seize.
“But of course, we’ve got to get the Border Security Bill on the statute book to give us those extra powers.”
The Home Office has announced that an extra £100m will be spent on tackling people smuggling, as protests outside asylum hotels continue across the country.
Some of the money will support the “one in, one out” returns agreement pilot with France, and some will go towards funding extended police powers to seize digital devices.
The Government said it ‘doesn’t want absolutely every phone’ from migrants – Ben Montgomery
Demonstrations have occurred outside hotel accommodation in London, Newcastle and Epping in Essex, calling for the sites not to be used to house migrants.
Asked on Sky News what her message was to protesters, Dame Angela said: “Anger doesn’t get you anywhere.
“What we have to do is recognise the values we have in this country, the rule of law we have in this country, the work we’re doing with the police to protect people.
“We will close asylum hotels by the end of the Parliament. We’ll do it faster if we can.”
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said that “the public’s patience with the asylum hotels and with the whole issue of illegal migration has snapped”.
Small boat crossings reached 25,000 for the year so far last week, a record milestone for this point in the year.
