The BBC exposes a shadow industry charging migrants thousands of pounds to help them cheat the asylum system.

A shadow industry of law firms and advisers is charging thousands of pounds to help migrants pretend to be gay in order to stay in the UK, the BBC has found.

In the first part of a major undercover investigation, we reveal how migrants whose visas are due to run out are being given fake cover stories and instructed in how to obtain fabricated evidence, including supporting letters, photographs and medical reports.

They then apply for asylum claiming to be gay and in fear for their lives if they return to Pakistan or Bangladesh.

In response to our findings, the Home Office said: “Anyone found trying to exploit the system will face the full force of the law, including removal from the UK.”

The UK’s asylum process offers protection to people who can’t return to their home countries because they would be in danger.

But the BBC News investigation reveals the process is being systematically exploited by legal advisers extracting fees from migrants who want to stay in the country.

These are often people whose student, work or tourist visas have expired, rather than those who have just arrived in the country on small boats or through other illegal routes.

  • Lovstuhagen@hilariouschaos.comOPEnglish
    2·
    11 小时前

    This part is also hilarious:

    On a Tuesday evening at a community centre in a quiet corner of Beckton, east London, more than 175 people have gathered for an event.

    Some have travelled from as far as South Wales, Birmingham and Oxford to attend a meeting organised by Worcester LGBT, which describes itself as a support group for gay and lesbian asylum seekers.

    The group’s website says that only genuine gay asylum seekers are welcome.

    But the men spilling out from the centre’s doors onto the pavement outside readily admit to our undercover reporter that all is not as it seems.

    “Most of the people here are not gays,” one man called Fahar says.

    Another, who gives the name Zeeshan, goes further.

    “Nobody is a gay here. Not even 1% are gay. Not even 0.01% are gay.”

    …

    With the conversation having now switched to Urdu, she appeared much more enthusiastic about helping our reporter stay in the country, discussing how he could apply for asylum on the grounds that he’s gay.

    When he told her that he wasn’t gay, she told him: “Listen to me. There is nobody who is real. There is only one way out in order to live here now and that is the very method everyone is adopting.”

    She would not be drawn on who had passed her his number, but we were able to match her WhatsApp profile picture and first name to Tanisa Khan, who works as an adviser to Worcester LGBT.