Kamal Ghorui
LONDON: A shady network of immigration advisers in the UK is charging migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh thousands of pounds to pretend they are gay in order to get asylum.BBC undercover reporters posed as students from Pakistan and Bangladesh whose visas were expiring but had no genuine basis to claim asylum. They unearthed how immigration advisers are charging up to £7,000 to manufacture false asylum claims for them.One adviser told a reporter: “There is no check-up to find out if the person is gay. The main thing is what you say. I will give you a letter from someone along with which we will take a few photographs, and that person will write that they have engaged in physical sex with you.”“A successful application would be worth the work involved,” the adviser, a woman, said. “You can live here and work and you are also eligible to claim benefits.” She even suggested the reporter could bring his wife from Pakistan and she could claim she was a lesbian and get asylum too.The advisers all offered to help the reporters manufacture made-up stories about being gay and provide evidence, such as tickets for gay events and photos of them at gay clubs. The plan was they would say they would fear for their lives if sent back to Pakistan or Bangladesh where gay sex is illegal.Men spilling out of a meeting organised by Worcester LGBT, a support group for gay and lesbian asylum seekers, all told an undercover reporter they were not gay. One of them, Zeeshan, admitted: “Nobody is a gay here. Not even 1% are gay. Not even 0.01% are gay.” Another said: “When you go for your home office interview, you have to be really shameless.”There has been a steep rise in asylum claims from Pakistani and Bangladesh nationals on study or work visas in the UK in recent years.Pakistan had the most asylum claims citing sexual orientation, followed by Bangladesh in 2023.
