An investigation by the British radio and television company BBC reveals how law firms and consultants help refugees in Britain to obtain asylum - partly for a fee. In this regard, the media speaks of a “shadow industry”.
Journalists have found that asylum seekers on the island are being provided with false identities in order to positively influence their asylum applications. According to the authors of the investigation, such abuses are being carried out systematically, writes the German public media ARD.
Undercover journalist embedded
The investigation team managed to introduce a young Pakistani, whose student visa had supposedly expired, but who really wanted to stay in Britain, among the participants in the scheme. He was subsequently contacted by a consultant who offered to accompany him throughout the asylum procedure.
In the first consultation, which the alleged student secretly recorded, the consultant made it clear to him that there was only one way to succeed - he had to present himself as a homosexual. If he could prove that he was a person with a homosexual orientation, his application would probably be accepted, since homosexuals are persecuted in Pakistan, the German publication explains.
Providing false witnesses
When the young man assured him that he was not gay, the consultant replied that this was the only way to obtain a residence permit. They even offered to arrange for someone to claim to have had a relationship with him.
Another consultant, who boasted that she had been helping people obtain asylum in this way for 17 years, advised the "client" to pretend to her GP that she was suffering from depression. A third consultant offered his services for 1,700 euros, and to fabricate false evidence, he asked for another 2,500 to 3,500 euros.
To provide such evidence, the consultants organized meetings for people who were supposedly homosexual. The BBC filmed several such meetings in East London with a hidden camera and in conversations with the participants, they confided in them that they were not actually homosexual.
The scale of the abuse is still unclear
The investigation was unable to establish how many such consultants were offering their services to asylum seekers. It is also unclear how many people were actually granted asylum in this way - based on false information.
The British Home Office reacted to the revelations and announced that anyone who abused the system would feel the full force of the law - including being expelled from the United Kingdom. Migration lawyer Ana Gonzalez, quoted by ARD, warns in turn that the abuses in question will make it more difficult for other applicants who have not participated in similar schemes to obtain asylum.
Author: Christoph Prösl (ARD)