“You have to pretend to be gay.” A network of legal firms and consultants in Great Britain he got paid thousands of pounds to help migrants with expiring visas – students or tourists – to pretend to be gay in order to obtain permission to extend their stay. This was revealed by a BBC investigation.
Medical certificates, letters of support, mock tests, cover stories were provided to facilitate requesting asylum, for fear of repercussions upon returning to Pakistan or Bangladesh because of their sexual orientation. In fact, the UK’s asylum procedure offers protection to people who would be in danger by returning to their countries of origin, for example Pakistan and Bangladesh, where homosexual relations are illegal.
The BBC News investigation reveals that the procedure is systematically exploited by legal advisers who extort money from migrants who wish to remain in the country, but who have expired study, work or tourism visas or who have just arrived in the country illegally. A law firm was charging seven thousand pounds to fill out a falsely based asylum request promising that the chances of rejection were very low.