Illegal immigrant wins £17,000 compensation for being held in jail

AN ILLEGAL immigrant who arrived in the UK as a stowaway and then committed about 20 offences has thanked a judge after being awarded more than £17,000 compensation for being falsely imprisoned by the Home Office for four months.

Judge Stephen Stewart, QC, concluded that Joseph Mjemer, 28 – who had used at least five aliases and claimed to be from four different countries – should be freed and paid damages for “loss of liberty”.

He ruled that Mjemer, who took legal action after being granted legal aid, should be awarded £17,360. Mjemer told him: “Thank you very much.”

Lawyers for Mjemer had successfully argued at the High Court in London that he was unlawfully held between January and May this year, while immigration officials tried to establish where he came from so they could deport him.

Mjemer also argued that he had suffered psychiatric harm as a result of being illegally detained. But the judge said there was no evidence of “substantial deterioration” and rejected a claim for “aggravated damages”.

The court heard that Mjemer had been taken into Home Office “administrative custody” in 2007 after arriving in the UK in 2003 and committing a variety of crimes. Officials feared he would abscond if freed.

The judge ruled that the detention had been lawful for most of that period but illegal between January and May 2011 because attempts to establish Mjemer’s nationality had faltered.