Outrage as compensation to detainees hit £10m

Compensation payouts to asylum seekers, foreign criminals and other migrants who claim they were kept in custody too long are soaring.

A probe by The Sunday Post has revealed £10 million of taxpayers’ cash has been paid to immigration detainees in the past two years.

Among those to receive a payout was a paedophile from Sudan who was held beyond his prison release date while officials battled in vain to have him deported.

A convicted robber from Algeria was also handed public money after it was ruled he had spent 23 days too long in custody.

Campaigners and politicians last night reacted with fury to the news.

Andy Silvester, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be furious their money is being wasted as a result of avoidable errors by the authorities. Not only is illegal, detention unfair on those subject to it, but the compensation claims take a chunk out of Britain’s stretched public finances.”

The figures, released under Freedom of Information, reveal the Home Office paid out almost £4.5m in compensation during 2011/12 for unlawful detention in immigration cases. But by 2012/13 the bill had increased to more than £5m. Compensation can be paid in cases where it is proved immigrants, foreign prisoners or asylum seekers have been wrongly held.

Many of the cases involve genuine torture victims who came to the UK seeking refuge but were mistreated by the authorities. However, there have also been incidences of depraved criminals benefitting.

Among the most galling is that of Jumaa Kater Saleh, from Sudan, who served four years in prison for being part of a gang which had sex with girls as young as 13.

Saleh, who lived in Leicester after his release, was detained while efforts were made to have him deported. He then won a claim for tens of thousands of pounds last year, after it was found eight months of his detention were illegal. Saleh, whose trial and appeals cost the taxpayer more than £350,000, eventually avoided being sent back to Sudan on human rights grounds.

The measures have angered Conservative MP Philip Davies, who represents Shipley in West Yorkshire, which has experienced huge levels of immigration.

He said: “Once again we see idiotic and senseless decisions as a result of human rights laws.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Detention is used as a last resort when people are found not to have a right to be in the UK and won’t leave voluntarily, or when there is a serious risk they’ll abscond from bail.

“Where a review of a case shows we need to do things differently, lessons will be learned and acted on.”