Nemah Shehadeh used public funding to launch her claim for damages over the 19 months she spent awaiting deportation, which she said was a breach of her human rights.
The 58-year-old previously served a jail term for fraud after trying to use a false passport to leave Britain.
Shehadeh lives in taxpayer-funded accommodation in Glasgow and comes from Palestine, but apparently does not hold citizenship of any state.
She arrived in the UK in 2002, using what she said were valid documents issued by the government of Jordan.
However, she stayed in the country after her visa expired, and in 2005 she was caught trying to leave Britain using a fake French passport.
After being convicted of using a 'false instrument', she was sentenced to four months in prison and was due to be deported.
Although she claimed asylum, her bid to stay in the UK failed, and in 2008 she was flown to Jordan.
Authorities in the Middle Eastern country refused to let her in, so she was returned to the Dungavel detention centre in Lanarkshire for 19 months until granted bail.
Shehadeh claimed that the detention was 'unlawful' and breached her human rights - and now a judge ruled in her favour, awarding her £36,000 of the £100,000 she demanded.
Speaking at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Lord Tyre said that officials had 'grossly overestimated' the chances of the asylum seeker going on the run, and ruled that she should have been released as soon as it became clear that it would be difficult to deport her.
In his judgement, he wrote: 'I have reached the view that during the months following receipt of the Jordanian Embassy's advice on 2 July 2008, a fair-minded assessment balancing the prospect of the petitioner's successful removal against the risk of her absconding ought to have led to the conclusion that the respondent would not be able to effect deportation within a period that was reasonable in all the circumstances.
'I accept that the respondent was entitled to take some time following receipt of the Jordanian advice to complete its review procedure and in particular to obtain official or perhaps ministerial authorisation of conditional release.
'I also bear in mind, however, that this case concerns an individual whose liberty had been restricted and I consider that it is reasonable to expect the matter to have been addressed with some expedition. I do not regard it as reasonable that by mid-October 2008, no decision had been communicated.
'In all the circumstances I consider that the petitioner's detention had ceased to be lawful by the end of August 2008. Given that she was released on bail on 27 August 2009, I hold that she was unlawfully detained by the respondent for a period of one year.'
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