UK's St Mungo's homelessness charity helped immigration authorities deport migrant rough sleepers

In September 2018 the UK's Information Commissioner found that it was likely that during 2017 a number of migrant rough sleepers were reported to the Home Office enforcement teams by the homelessness charity St. Mungo's. The finding followed a complaint from the Public Interest Law Unit. The charity claimed it passed on these details when people wanted to return home. The Home Office halted its policy of deporting migrant rough sleepers in December 2017 and the government was to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation to some of those who were identified by such patrols after the high court ruled the policy to be unlawful and discriminatory. The ICO found that there was no breach of data protection rules because St Mungo's cited a public interest defence.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/21/st-mungos-is-likely-to-have-given-home-office-data-on-rough-sleepers-information-commissioner

Writer: Diane Taylor
Publication: Guardian