Asylum: Mobile Phones

(asked on 1st December 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 17 November 2020 to Question 114198, under what statutory powers the mobile telephones of people arriving by boat are seized and held for three to six months.


Answered by
Tom Pursglove Portrait
Tom Pursglove
Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This question was answered on 9th December 2021

85276: The statutory powers used to seize mobile phones are s. 19 of PACE as applied by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Application to immigration officers and designated customs officers in England and Wales) Order 2013 (the PACE Order) and s. 48 Immigration Act 2016.

85277: – Since November 2020, Immigration Enforcement have returned to the owners the majority of mobile telephone devices which have been seized by people arriving illegally via small boat to the UK.

85278: It is not our policy to take wedding rings from people. Personal items may be taken for safekeeping during the initial screening of migrants, but these are restored to the owner at the earliest opportunity. Items that may provide evidence of a criminal offence such as people smuggling may can be retained for a longer period if they form part of an active investigation.

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