A High Court judge rejected an appeal against the compensation award (Image: Getty)
Hardworking Brits will be “furious” an asylum seeker was awarded almost £100,000 for being treated “like a criminal” by the Home Office, a thinktank has said.
Nadra Almas claimed that, as a Christian, she faced persecution in Pakistan during her 16-year battle to remain in the UK after overstaying a student visa in the early 2000s.
The High Court found “numerous” breaches in how Ms Almas was treated by Home Office officials and at Yarl’s Wood detention centre.
A judge found her home life was affected by the anxiety she felt after her period of detention and she had been left feeling “like a criminal”.
Home Office officials appealed against the findings and compensation of £98,757, but Mr Justice Ritchie rejected its case, insisting the damages were appropriate.
Shimeon Lee, a researcher at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, told Express.co.uk: “Taxpayers will be furious to be lumped with this mega bill for Home Office failures.
“At a time when budgets are already stretched, hard-working Brits can’t afford to be paying the price of bureaucratic incompetence. Ministers must get a grip of their departments and make sure costly errors like this don’t happen again.”
, Deputy Leader of Reform UK, told Express.co.uk: “I am raging. This beggars belief.” He claimed: “Thanks to this judge British taxpayers are being taken for a ride by asylum seekers.
“At a time when our pensioners have had their Winter Fuel Allowance taken away, we now see asylum seekers being awarded nearly six figures. Britain is broken.”
He added that “when” Reform takes power after the next election, the “abuse” of British taxpayers will cease and Britons will be put “front and centre”.
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Richard Tice says the compensation ‘beggars belief’ (Image: Getty)
Ms Almas came to Britain in 2004 on a student visa, which a judge heard expired after five months. She was served a notice of removal in 2008 and made six bids to remain in the UK between 2005 and 2014.
The High Court heard Ms Almas was handcuffed by Home Office officials who detained her in 2018 and told her she would be deported. She was released two weeks later.
The Home Office has been approached for comment.