London Bangla A Force for the community…
AS PART OF the Labour Government’s campaign to crack down on migrants, Keir Starmer has given “border authorities” the power to seize phones from “illegal migrants”. Bet Farage didn’t think of that one.
The Government’s thinking is that migrants’ phones may contain information on traffickers who profit from the small boats crossing industry. But the sweeping powers come at the expense of migrants’ human rights and display a lack of understanding and compassion.
●Media reports refer to the power being to seize phones from “illegal migrants”, but they seem to allow border authorities to remove phones from any migrant, before the lawfulness of their status has been established.
●Officers seizing the phones can force migrants to take off their coats so they can search for phones. They can even look in migrants’ mouths, to see if they are hiding a SIM card. The officers able to do this include police, immigration officers and “border security” forces.
●Yes, migrants’ phones may contain information about who has arranged their boat trip. But this is more likely to be the odd name and phone number – not a personnel chart for a whole trafficking gang.
And migrants’ phones will also contain phone numbers of their friends and relatives back home, plus contact details of friends or fellow travellers they have met along the way. Taking away their phones means the migrant can’t ring home to say that they are safe, or make contact with a fellow migrant who may be in the UK – let alone ring the myriad of agencies involved in dealing with migrants, or support agencies such as the Red Cross. The Refugee Council told the BBC that the new powers should be used proportionately, saying that phones were “a lifeline for vulnerable people who needed to remain in contact with their families.”
The new powers came into force today, Monday, 5th January, beginning at the Manston Migrant Processing Centre in Kent, which has facilities to download the content of mobile phones. If the content of phones can be downloaded, why does the device have to be seized? It looks as if this is just another way of intimidating migrants – by the seizure and by leaving them alone as they cope with the early days of being in the UK.
Alex Norris MP
Alex Norris MP, Border Security Minister, said: “We promised to restore order and control to our borders, which means taking on the people smuggling networks behind this deadly trade. That is exactly why we are implementing robust new laws with powerful offences to intercept, disrupt and dismantle these vile gangs faster than ever before and cut off their supply chains.”
Norris seems impervious to the idea that his strategy to find the traffickers is at the expense of the migrants themselves.
Mike Tapp MP
Mike Tapp MP, Minister for Migration and Citizenship, seemed to be trying to mollify the move in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He said seized phones could later be returned but that would “depend on the individual circumstances… what’s found on that phone. That’s for the guys on the ground to make that operational decision. If people have devices… that could hold intelligence, then we are right to be able to seize that. But that doesn’t take away compassion.”
What nonsense. If you want to show compassion while you search for information on trafficking groups, download migrants’ phones and hand the devices back.
Labour’s Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is preparing more changes to the asylum system, while the Tories’ Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philip, says Mahmood’s changes have not gone far enough.
Read more about it:
Migrants can’t live on fresh air
Barts blames Government for migrant checks
