Children reaching UK by small boat face sim card mouth searches | Immigration and asylum

Children arriving in Britain on small boats could be searched to check if they are hiding phone SIM cards in their mouths under new Home Office rules.

The new measures will allow immigration enforcement officers to seize phones at the border if they are believed to contain useful intelligence about people-smugglers.

Officers will have the power to make new arrivals at UK ports remove outer coats, jackets or gloves to search for devices. They will also be able to discover SIM cards or small electronic devices hidden inside someone’s mouth.

Home Office sources confirmed that, if deemed clearly necessary and proportionate, children could also be subjected to these searches.

Charities have expressed concern over the move and refugees have said they do not believe the Home Office will find any useful information on newcomers’ phones.

A Syrian refugee said: “I’ve never heard of an asylum seeker hiding a SIM card in his or her mouth. When we crossed the Channel the smugglers told us to delete everything from our phones.”

“People who had cheap phones threw them in the sea, while people who had good phones left them with friends in northern France and asked them to mail them via DHL if they reached the UK safely. I think this is a show by Shabana (Mahmood).”

Maddy Harris of the Humans for Rights Network, which provides support to young asylum seekers, said: “People should be treated with dignity and respect, not as criminals who are subject to invasive searches and interrogations that violate their privacy.

“Most who arrive in small boats, especially children, will be traumatized by horrific journeys filled with violence. (The) Home Office must prioritize recovery over criminality.”

Home Office officials say mobile phone searches will help them gather intelligence about asylum seekers’ journeys and arrest people-smugglers. He said immigration, police and National Crime Agency (NCA) officers would be able to search phones at the border without arresting migrants.

The NCA and police investigators will also be able to use new interim serious crime prevention orders and take immediate action to ban suspects from using mobile phones, laptops and accessing social media as part of an investigation.

The new rules are part of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which is expected to receive royal assent this week.

The High Court found that the Home Office had acted unlawfully in 2022 when it had a widespread unpublished policy of confiscating mobile phones from people arriving in small boats. Officials said at the time that the purpose of the phone seizure was to gather intelligence about smugglers.

Alex Norris, Minister for Border Protection and Asylum, said: “Organised criminal networks rely on phone contacts and social media to recruit migrants for Channel crossings.

“These new powers will allow law enforcement to seize illegal immigrants’ phones before arrest so we can gather intelligence and shut down these vile smuggling rings before they attempt to put more lives at risk on these dangerous journeys.”

Sile Reynolds, head of asylum advocacy at Freedom From Torture, said: “Using invasive powers to search through the clothes – and even inside the mouths – of desperate and traumatized people, when they have just survived a terrifying journey across the Channel, is a dystopian act of cruelty.

“These new powers, which will be used indiscriminately against all those seeking protection in small boats, run the risk of treating all refugees as a security threat. Such blatant disregard for the universal human right to privacy is outrageous.”