A BBC investigation has uncovered a number of individuals attached to legal firms who helped migrants fabricate false asylum claims based on being gay or LGBT.
The BBC investigation found that law firms and advisors were encouraging migrants, usually from Pakistan and Bangladesh, to claim they were gay to be allowed to stay in the UK after their current visas had expired.
One of the individuals featured in the report is paralegal Mazedul Hasan Shakil, who works at Law & Justice Solicitors, an immigration law firm based in Birmingham and London. Shakil is also the founder of Worster LGBT, where migrants were encouraged to gather to advance their claims of being gay, although admissions caught on camera from some of those in attendance revealed that almost nobody attached to the group was actually homosexual.
In 2016, Kenneth Udeh, a 22-year-old who had claimed asylum in Ireland based on being gay, was jailed for five years for raping a woman in Waterford. It was reported that the Nigerian man had come to Ireland in 2009 and had been refused asylum twice, but was in the midst of a fresh claim when the assault took place.
The BBC’s undercover reporter, who posed as a student whose visa was due to expire, was advised that he had to be fleeing persecution to claim asylum, but did not appear to be in that situation.
‘I am a gay and it is my reality’
Several hours after the call with Shakil, the reporter received another call from a woman named Tanisa Khan, who went on to say she would help fabricate evidence of him being gay. When the ‘student’ said that he was not in fact gay, she replied in Urdu, “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.”
Khan claimed she had been assisting migrants in making false asylum claims for 17 years, and was discovered to be an advisor for Worster LGBT.
She explained how a letter from the group would serve as strong evidence that an asylum claimant was indeed gay and how tickets to gay events, photos at clubs, and false relationship claims would help bolster the case that was ‘unlikely’ to be refused.
“There is no check-up to find out if the person is a gay,” she said. “The main thing is what you say. You just have to tell them that ‘I am a gay and it is my reality’.
She assured the reporter that, “There are a lot of organisations here where there are people like you who are not gay but are applying for the visa. You are not alone.” She advised the reporter that her initial fee would be £2,500, although this could increase if the claim was refused and additional services were required to launch an appeal.
Although the first meeting with Khan took place in her bedroom, two subsequent meetings took place at the offices of Law & Justice Solicitors, who deny that she works with them or was permitted to use their offices.
When approached by the BBC, she claimed that there had been a “misunderstanding” with regard to the advice she gave, which she claimed was due to her not being fluent in Urdu.
Ejel Khan, the founder of the Muslim LGBT Network, described the situation as a “vast problem”, saying that people offer to pay him to back up false ‘gay’ asylum claims.
When the undercover reporter asked what would become of his wife in Pakistan if he were certified as a gay asylum seeker, he was advised that she could also claim to be a lesbian and advance an asylum claim on that basis.
The BBC said that almost two thirds of gay asylum claims were granted at the first stage of investigation in 2023, 42% of which were made by Pakistani nationals.
The report also uncovered that other false claimants had been advised to visit their GP to claim that they were suffering from depression to bolster their claims. False claims were also made concerning HIV diagnosis.
Nick Timothy, the Conservative shadow Justice Secretary, said that the BBC investigation “confirms an open secret”.
“Human rights laws have killed immigration control,” he said, adding, “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.”
The undercover reporter also met with Aqeel Abbasi, a senior legal advisor at Connaught Law in London’s legal district.
The BBC say that Abbasi also appeared to be willing to help their reporter advance a claim based on fabricated evidence, advising him on the need to visit gay clubs and the need to take photos there.
Last March, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced that asylum status in the UK would be reduced to a 30-month basis, subject to review. The new rules mean that asylum claimants can be returned to their countries of origin if UK authorities deem it is safe to do so.
For those who had already made asylum claims, their status remains a five-year grant with the right to apply for family reunification.