A probe into the United Kingdom’s asylum system has found its exploitation at the hands of migrants allegedly pretending to be gay to continue to reside in the country.
As part of a major undercover investigation, the BBC found that migrants, whose visas are due to expire but who do not want to return to their home countries, are being provided with fake cover stories. The culprits are a shadow industry of law firms and legal advisers who are instructing and helping these migrants.
Responding to the findings of the probe, the UK Home Office said it would come down hard on those found trying to exploit the asylum system. “Anyone found trying to exploit the system will face the full force of the law, including removal from the UK,” BBC cited the Home Office as saying.
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How does this shadow industry work?
According to the BBC report, these legal advisers and law firms charge fees and provide fake cover stories to migrants, and instruct them on how to obtain fabricated evidence, including supporting letters, photographs and medical reports.
These migrants then apply for asylum in the UK claiming to be gay, and highlight that they are in fear for their lives if they return to Pakistan or Bangladesh. The UK asylum system process has a caveat for protection of those people who cannot return o their home countries because they would be in danger. Given that gay sex is illegal in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the migrants are then provided asylum.
More often than not, people whose student, work or tourist visas have expired use this route to get asylum.
What did the investigation uncover?
The BBC sent undercover reporters, who pretended to be migrants looking to get an extended stay in the country, to immigration advisers who were willing to help make up false asylum claims. This was done after gathering initial evidence and on the basis of tip-offs.
These reporters posed as international students from Pakistan and Bangladesh whose visas were due to expire, and found that law firms were charging up to £7,000 to help the, with a false asylum claim. The firms further promised that the chances of rejection from the Home Office were “very low.”
It was further found that the fake asylum seekers were also attending support group programmes for depression in order to bolster their case and get medical evidence. When the undercover reporters visited one such programme, those attending said “not even 0.01 per cent” people there were gay, according to video evidence by the BBC.
One of the immigration advisers had spent more than 17 years helping people make false asylum claims, and also offered to arrange someone who could pretend they were in a a gay sexual relationship with a client.
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