Only one in 100 asylum seekers are genuine, a Home Office whistleblower in the UK has claimed.
The former Home Office insider, who worked for years assessing thousands of claims, told The Times newspaper in a report published Monday that many migrants use the “same script” and that the process has turned into a “massive fraud.”
The report has sparked backlash against the abuse of the UK’s “dysfunctional” asylum system.
Claims made in the bombshell investigation include “hundreds” of Iraqi Kurds petitioning to stay in the UK, claiming they were all in a relationship with the same daughter of the Kurdish Prime Minister. Meanwhile, it is claimed by the whistleblower that scores of Pakistanis claimed they could not return home as they were in a homosexual relationship with the same man, who would provide letters supporting their claims.
The former official said many applying to stay in Britain were ultimately using the ‘same script’.
In a 2024 Home Office study, Pakistan had the largest number of claimants stating to be gay or bisexual. Pakistani people are among the most common nationalities claiming asylum in Britain (10%) followed by Eritrean (8 %), Iranian (8%), Sudanese (7%) and Afghan (7%).
“There’s almost no aspect of the asylum system that isn’t either a massive fraud or just really dysfunctional,” said the whistleblower. He said that claimants only needed to undergo a brief screening initially, which was followed by an interview by officials some months later.
“This gives them time to prepare, time to get advice, time to see exactly what fake evidence they can get before committing to a story at full interview,” he said.
He told the newspaper that he believed some claims included fake police and court documents, however officials in the UK were prohibited from contacting the home countries due to confidentiality rules.
According to British Government data, 39% of all asylum claims came from those who entered the UK on a work, study, or visitor visa and overstayed.
The former employee spoke of an internal bias towards giving the green-light to claims, which would only take mere minutes, rather than spending hours rejecting an application.
It comes after an investigation by the BBC, released in April, caught legal advisors telling undercover reporters that asylum seekers can pretend to be gay to stay in Britain.
Subsequently, a woman in her late 40s was arrested on suspicion of providing an immigration service contrary to section 91 of the Immigration and Asylum Act, while a man in his early twenties was also arrested on suspicion of fraud, according to a Home Office source.
The probe exposed a network of asylum experts in Britain charging up to £7,000 to coach migrants whose visas are expiring on how to pose as gay. Clients, it was found, were given cover stories and told how to falsify evidence such as supporting letters, photos from LBGT nightclubs and medical reports.
Migrants then used this training to claim asylum in the UK on the basis that they risk deadly persecution if they were to return to countries such as Pakistan or Bangladesh, where homosexual acts are against the law.
Britain’s asylum process offers protection to people who cannot return to their home countries because they would be in danger.
The UK’s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said in response: “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.”
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) told the BBC it was urgently following up with all the firms it regulated which were identified in the sting.
Laura Rogowski Weldon, a former welfare manager for the Home Office’s asylum contractor, who was also a 2024 Conservative general election candidate, today highlighted concerns relating to those who make the claim that they are victims of modern slavery – which she said may be the “biggest scam of them all.”
She told the Daily Mail: “The problem is that aside from the blatantly risible examples in the article there are thousands of other vague and unprovable claims for asylum. The biggest one is modern slavery.
“If you come here illegally and work cash in hand at a car wash and live in a shed round the back, the dodgy guy who owns it is not going to whip out a load of paperwork to show you were there of your own free will when it gets raided, so you claim asylum and they can’t prove you weren’t forced to do it so you get approved. That is the biggest scam of them all.”
In response, a Home Office spokesperson told The Times: “We do not comment on anonymous briefings. We have robust processes to test credibility and identify fraudulent claims.
“If any evidence of fraud or misrepresentation is discovered during the process, those individuals will have their claim revoked.
“This has seen the asylum grant rate falling from 77 per cent in 2022 to 38 per cent this year.
“Our new Immigration and Asylum Bill will ensure asylum processing is swift and fair, allowing us to further bear down on those who abuse the immigration system.
“The Home Secretary has been clear that those trying to defraud the British people to remain in the UK will have their application refused and find themselves on a one-way flight out of Britain.”