The Home Office has admitted unlawfully confiscating the phones of asylum seekers who have crossed the Channel.

Three men, from Iraq and Iran, have brought a case to the High Court this week claiming the Home Secretary operated a "secret, blanket policy" to seize mobiles from those arriving on small boats and then downloaded the data from them.

An unpublished policy for the handover of the new arrivals' phones operated at Tug Haven in Dover between April and November 2020, and it's believed thousands were taken, the Independent reports.

The court heard officials were also accused of bullying asylum seekers into handing over their pin numbers to gain access to the phone's emails, photos and videos.

Tom de La Mare QC, who is representing one of the three asylum seekers, referred to as HM, told those at the judicial review many asylum seekers who had their phones confiscated were given a receipt containing a Home Office phone number to call to try and retrieve their phones.

He added that many people were left waiting several months to get their phones back.

“They were simply given a number which, evidence is unchallenged, was never answered,” he said.

'He didn't know if they were alive or dead...'

The court heard that HM lost contact with his wife and child due to no longer having his phone to call them.

“He didn’t know if they were alive or dead,” said de La Mare.

He accused the Home Office of “serious illegality” in operating the policy in “complete secrecy” and that the number of phones confiscated during several months in 2020 before lawyers started to investigate what was happening was probably thousands.

He added that initially the Home Office denied the existence of this policy but later confirmed it.

It was “evidence of the chaos that was prevailing”, Mr de La Mare said.

The three asylum seekers bringing the case all claim they had their phones seized between April and September 2020. One has been recognised as a potential victim of trafficking.

The trio claim that the Home Office’s policies of seizing phones, taking pin numbers and extracting data is unlawful, because the government does not have any legal power to do this with newly arrived asylum seekers, “who are the most vulnerable in society”.

They also say the policies were unlawful because they operated in a blanket fashion, were unpublished and breached human rights and data protection laws.

Privacy International, an organisation that specialises in data and privacy issues, has been granted permission to intervene in the case.

The case continues.