London, Apr 15 (PTI) Migrants of Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent are being charged thousands of pounds by immigration advisers to pretend to be gay to claim asylum in the UK, an undercover media investigation claimed on Tuesday.
The BBC said its reporters had uncovered how migrants whose visas are due to run out are being given fake cover stories and instructed on creating fabricated evidence. They are then able to apply for asylum claiming to be gay and in fear for their lives if they return to Pakistan or Bangladesh.
“The UK’s asylum process offers protection to people who can’t return to their home countries because they would be in danger, for example in countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh where gay sex is illegal,” the BBC report states.
It claimed the first part of its major undercover investigation had revealed that the process was being “systematically exploited by legal advisers extracting fees from migrants who want to stay in the country”.
“These are often people whose student, work or tourist visas have expired, rather than those who have just arrived in the country on small boats or through other illegal routes. This group now makes up 35 per cent of all asylum claims, which topped 100,000 in 2025,” the report states.
According to official Home Office statistics, Pakistan topped the charts for the most asylum claims citing sexual orientation in 2023, followed by Bangladesh. Nigeria, India and Uganda completed the top five countries applying for asylum through this route that year.
“Anyone found trying to exploit the system will face the full force of the law, including removal from the UK,” the Home Office said.
Giving details of its operation, the BBC said it sent in undercover reporters after gathering initial evidence to investigate how willing immigration advisers were to help people make up false asylum claims. The reporters posed as international students from Pakistan and Bangladesh whose visas were due to expire.
They discovered fake news websites, staged political protests and bogus medical conditions being used to misuse the asylum system. Three routes for such bogus claims emerged as: someone who faced persecution for their sexual orientation, their religious beliefs or their political views.
Labour MP Jo White, a member of the Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee, said the government must “crack down” on law firms and advisers exposed by the BBC.
She also called on the Home Office to stop issuing study visas to people from Pakistan – as it did last month for people from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan over what it said was widespread visa abuse.
“It is absolutely essential that the government cracks down on them. Evidence like this I hope will go straight to the police and the police will begin their activity and break it apart,” said White.
“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. And illegal immigrants should be banned from seeking asylum at all,” added Chris Philp, Opposition Conservatives’ shadow home secretary. PTI AK SCY SCY
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