Lawyers in the UK help immigrants to trick the authorities and impersonate themselves

The network’s reporters, posing as foreign students whose residence visas were about to expire, recorded with hidden cameras how immigration consultants guide them step by step on how to falsify evidence. For sums ranging from £2,500 to £7,000, the counselors offer complete “assistance packages”. These include directing photos in gay clubs, letters of support from LGBT organizations, and even training on how to stage mental illnesses to family doctors to obtain medical certificates for deep depression. In one extreme case that surfaced in the investigation, an immigrant even lied that he was HIV positive just to strengthen his asylum case.

In one of the recorded meetings, participants in a conference of a support group for “LGBT asylum seekers” were heard openly admitting to the scam. “No one here is gay, not even 0.01%,” said one of the attendees. An immigration consultant named Tanisa, who was recorded explaining the method to the undercover reporter, even assured him without hesitation that once he was granted asylum as a homosexual, he would be able to bring his wife from Pakistan And “we will also make her a lesbian.” Another consultant from a well-known London law firm claimed to the undercover reporter that “the chances of refusal are very low.”

The British Ministry of the Interior said in response that this is a cynical exploitation of a system designed to protect real persecuted people. “Anyone who is found to be taking advantage of the system will face the full severity of the law, including removal from the UK,” it said. At the same time, refugee organizations, along with politicians in the UK, are calling for an immediate criminal investigation, while warning that these crooks are directly harming LGBT refugees who are fleeing a real danger to their lives.