Two people have been arrested after an undercover investigation by the BBC revealed an underground industry in which immigration advisors help asylum seekers pretend to be gay so they can stay in Britain.
The BBC reported today that the Criminal and Financial Investigations section of the Home Office’s Immigration Enforcement team arrested a woman in her late forties who may have violated the Immigration and Asylum Act, along with a man in his early twenties, who is alleged to have committed fraud.
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“If lawyers, or so-called lawyers, and legal advisers are out there providing this dodgy advice, we’re coming after that,” Immigration Minister Mike Tapp told the broadcasting company. “And as you’ve seen today, we’ll make those arrests.”
“Our asylum system is there for people who are genuinely fleeing persecution and war and I’m really proud of that,” Tapp added. “But people that are trying to abuse it will not be accepted.”
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During the initial BBC investigation, a reporter went undercover and said he found a vast network of immigration advisors willing to help folks whose work, tourist, or student visas have expired defraud their way into being granted LGBTQ+ asylum.
One firm charged up to 7,000 euros (about $8200 US) to help fabricate an asylum claim. Another said it had spent 17 years helping immigrants file fake gay asylum claims, even offering to hire someone to pretend to have been a client’s same-sex partner.
The undercover reporter also attended an event organized by Worcester LGBT, a support group for gay and lesbian asylum seekers, and was told by attendees that almost no one there was actually gay.
The reporter’s investigation, in which he posed as someone wanting to apply for asylum, ultimately brought them to Worcester LGBT advisor Tanisa Khan, who allegedly told the reporter, “There is no hope” for a visa unless it’s through gay asylum.
She told the reporter they would need to memorize an extensive made-up story, but that “there is no check-up to find out if the person is gay.”
“The main thing is what you say. You just have to tell them that ‘I am gay and it is my reality,’” she said, according to the investigation.
“There are a lot of organizations here where there are people like you who are not gay but are applying for the visa,” she added. “You are not alone.”
Khan said she would create a “comprehensive package” for the reporter that included photos of them at gay clubs and a letter from someone affirming they have had sex. Khan’s price was 2,500 euros (about $2,900 US).
The reporter then asked about his wife in Pakistan. Khan assured him that she could also apply for asylum as a lesbian.
The BBC also found that Khan is legally barred from offering immigration advice because she is not a regulated immigration advisor.
Khan has since claimed she never advised the BBC reporter to make a false claim and chalked it up to miscommunication (they conducted the meeting in Urdu, which she said she does not speak fluently).
Mazedul Hasan Shakil, a paralegal at Law & Justice Solicitors who directed the reporter to Khan, said he had no knowledge of any fraud or deception when he connected them. He also said Worcester LGBT is conducting its own investigation into Khan.
Immigration lawyer Ana Gonzalez told the BBC that these kinds of operations are “just really making things harder for the legitimate asylum seekers and refugees out there.”
“Particularly for something that is as intangible as being LGBTI, really, because when you are a victim of torture, when certain things happen to you, often there is a way of evidencing that, in an objective way.”
The undercover reporter alleged a similar experience at another firm, claiming senior legal adviser Aqeel Abbasi of Connaught Law was also willing to help him fabricate evidence to gain asylum, only this time it would cost 7,000 euros.
Abbasi has denied the allegations. Connaught told the BBC it is conducting an internal investigation and that Abbasi’s contract has been suspended in the meantime.
Imran Hussain, director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, told the BBC that it’s “deplorable that unscrupulous advisers are exploiting desperate and vulnerable people for profit and those responsible must be held to account.”
“Every day in our frontline services, we work with LGBTQ+ refugees from countries like Uganda and Pakistan who have faced imprisonment, violence, and abuse simply for who they are,” he continued, “and who have come to Britain so they can live safely and openly. These kinds of abuses must not be used to undermine the credibility of people with genuine need for asylum.”
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