UK Legal Advisors to Migrants: Claim You’re Gay to Stay

The United Kingdom has an asylum system similar to the one we have here in the United States. The purpose of these systems is to ensure that the state doesn’t deport anyone who is in danger of being killed if they are deported.

Here in the US, especially during the Biden administration, the system was widely abused by migrants who were in reality here for jobs. But they had learned from other migrants or from progressive groups in this country that by claiming asylum at the border they would be allowed in to the country and it would probably take as long as 7 years before their case would be decided by a judge. 

In the vast majority of cases that judge would state the obvious, i.e. economic migrants are not covered by asylum laws. An order of deportation would be issued. But by that point, the migrant might have US born children and, whether they did or not, ICE would almost never come for them regardless of what the judge said. So long as they didn’t get convicted of a felony, they were allowed to stay anyway.

In the UK, the asylum system is similarly designed to protect people who might be in danger if deported. And today the BBC reports that has created an incentive for legal advisers to recommend their clients lie about their sexuality in order to convince authorities they would be targeted if sent home. In short, claim you are gay and you’ll be allowed to stay.

A shadow industry of law firms and advisers is charging thousands of pounds to help migrants pretend to be gay in order to stay in the UK, the BBC has found.

In the first part of a major undercover investigation, we reveal how migrants whose visas are due to run out are being given fake cover stories and instructed in how to obtain fabricated evidence, including supporting letters, photographs and medical reports.

They then apply for asylum claiming to be gay and in fear for their lives if they return to Pakistan or Bangladesh…

This group now makes up 35% of all asylum claims, which topped 100,000 in 2025.

The scams are pretty involved. In order to be convincing, the individuals have to generate paperwork, photos and other documents to demonstrate that they are gay.

• Fake asylum seekers visited GPs pretending to be depressed in order to get medical evidence to bolster their cases, with one even lying about being HIV positive
• One immigration adviser boasted that she had spent more than 17 years helping bring fake claims and said she could arrange for someone to pretend they’d had a gay sexual relationship with a client
• Our undercover reporter was even told he could bring his wife over from Pakistan once he had got asylum in the UK and she could then make a fake claim pretending to be a lesbian

The BBC attended an event in East London which was put on by a group offering “support for gay and lesbian asylum seekers.” About 175 people turned up for the event but afterwards the BBC spoke to some of the young men outside. “Nobody is a gay here. Not even 1% are gay. Not even 0.01% are gay,” one man told them.

The BBC went beyond tips and sent people undercover to meet with some of the legal advisers. These people are charging thousands of dollars for their advice on gaming the system as well as help generating documents that will pass muster. That might include a letter from a group like the one mentioned above providing support to gay migrants. It also might include a visit to an actual gay club where someone could take photos of the migrant to document their identity as a gay person.

The men trying this scam are disproportionately Pakistani.

In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, there were initial decisions on 3,430 LGBT asylum claims, and nearly 1,400 new asylum claims lodged on the basis of sexual orientation.

Some 42% were made by Pakistani nationals and they accounted for the largest number of such claims in each of the five previous years.

Pakistani men are famously the group who were largely behind the grooming gang scandals. Makes you wonder how many of them faked being gay to get in to the country and then used that asylum they were granted to abuse young British girls.

Here’s the BBC report:

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