Migration fury as ‘sham’ lawyers ‘tell asylum seekers to pretend to be gay’

Shabana Mahmood has slammed immigration lawyers allegedly helping migrants to cheat the asylum system by pretending to be gay.

Legal advisers are reportedly charging thousands to coach foreign nationals whose student and work visas are expiring on how to seek sanctuary to stay indefinitely and claim benefits.

They are encouraging people to say they are gay because there are no checks, adding that it is “the very method everyone is adopting”, a BBC investigation has claimed.

Some even offered to arrange for people to pretend they had same-sex relationships with clients, with others compiling dossiers of staged photographs and fake support letters.

Home Secretary Ms Mahmood declared: “Anyone abusing protections for people fleeing persecution over gender or sexual orientation is beyond contempt.

“Let me be clear: try to defraud the British people to enter or remain in the UK and your asylum claim will be refused, your support cut off, and you will find yourself on a one-way flight out of Britain.

“Sham lawyers facilitating this abuse will face the full force of the law. With them behind bars, their dirty money will be seized and reinvested to shut down the crime they once bankrolled.”

One undercover reporter was told by Tanisa Khan, an unregulated immigration adviser in Forest Gate, east London: “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 added: “There is no check-up to find out if the person is a gay.

“The main thing is what you say. You just have to tell them that ‘I am a gay and it is my reality’.”

Ms Khan later told the undercover reporter to attend an event organised by Worcester LGBT to bolster his claim.

Ms Khan told the undercover reporter: “This meeting is essential because you are required to provide evidence to the Home Office demonstrating that, if you are gay, you are indeed affiliated with a gay organisation.”

She said Worcester LGBT would be able to issue a letter he could use as evidence for his application.

At one meeting shown in Beckton, east London, groups of men revealed the asylum scam crisis.

One man, Fahar, told an undercover reporter: “Most of the people here are not gays.”

Another, who gives the name Zeeshan, went further and said: “Nobody is a gay here. Not even 1% are gay. Not even 0.01% are gay.”

The BBC investigation claims migrants are being given fabricated evidence to take to Home Office appointments, including supporting letters, photographs and medical reports.

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy said: “Human rights laws have killed immigration control.

“Many claimant lawyers and ‘charities’ – many publicly funded – are abetting thousands of crimes.

“They all belong in prison. We will bring the whole thing down.”

Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said: “There are many who have been accessories to the perpetration of a massive crime on the British people. All will be held to account by Reform.”

In the BBC investigation, Connaught Law in London bragged that, for £7,000, it could bring a fabricated asylum claim. It insisted the chance of refusal was “very low”.

The BBC investigation also revealed migrants pretending to be asylum seekers are visiting GPs pretending to be depressed in order to get medical evidence to bolster their cases, with one even lying about being HIV positive.

A lawyer linked to another firm told an undercover reporter he had helped people pretend to be gay or atheists to successfully obtain asylum.

He offered to help with a fake claim for a fee of £1,500 and said it would cost a further £2,000-£3,000 to create evidence.

Home Office statistics show that Pakistani nationals make up a disproportionate number of the claims made on the grounds of sexuality.

In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, there were initial decisions on 3,430 LGBT asylum claims, and nearly 1,400 new asylum claims lodged on the basis of sexual orientation.

Some 42% were made by Pakistani nationals and they accounted for the largest number of such claims in each of the five previous years.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This exposes the scam at the heart of many asylum claims.

“Bogus advisers help illegal immigrants make up claim to game to get asylum, for example by pretending to be gay.

“Tanisa Khan and her associates like Mazedul Shakil should be prosecuted for immigration fraud.

“The whole system is rotten. The asylum system must be totally overhauled so only a very small number of people facing real personal persecution with real evidence to support it are given asylum.

“This asylum scam must end. And illegal immigrants should be banned from seeking asylum at all.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Any attempt to misuse protections designed for people fleeing genuine persecution because of their sexuality is deplorable.

“The asylum system is built on robust safeguards to ensure every claim is rigorously and fairly assessed.

“Protection is granted only to those who meet the established criteria.

“Abuse is actively uncovered and procedures continually reviewed to shut down misuse.”