UK Home Office (archive photo)
Migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh – both countries that ban same-sex relationships – are being paid thousands of pounds by immigration consultants to pretend to be gay in order to stay in the UK, an undercover media investigation has claimed.The BBC reported that its journalists revealed how migrants nearing the end of their visas are provided with fabricated stories and trained to create false evidence. They can then apply for asylum on the grounds that they are gay and fear for their lives if they return to Pakistan or Bangladesh.“The UK’s asylum process provides protection for people who cannot return to their countries of origin because they would be in danger, for example, in countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh where same-sex relationships are illegal,” the BBC report said, according to PTI.“These are often people whose study, work or tourist visas have expired, rather than those who have just arrived in the country on small boats or through other illegal routes,” she added. “This group now makes up 35% of all asylum applications, which exceeded 100,000 in 2025.”According to Interior Ministry statistics, Pakistan recorded the largest number of asylum applications in 2023, followed by Bangladesh. Nigeria, India and Uganda completed the top five.
How the BBC operation unfolded
Giving details of its operation, the BBC said it sent undercover reporters posing as students from Pakistan and Bangladesh, with their “visas” expiring, after gathering preliminary evidence to investigate the extent to which immigration consultants were willing to help people fabricate false asylum claims.They uncover fake news websites, organize political protests and fake medical cases that are used to abuse the asylum system.
Three routes to such false claims have emerged: A person has faced persecution because of his or her sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or political views.Labor MP Jo White, a member of Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee, called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor government to “crack down” on these law firms and consultants.White also urged the Home Office to stop issuing study visas to people from Pakistan, as it did last month to people from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan due to what it described as widespread abuse of visas.“It is absolutely necessary for the government to take strict action against them. I hope that evidence like this will go directly to the police, and the police will get active and dismantle it,” White said.Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary from the opposition Conservative Party, added: “The whole system is corrupt. The entire asylum system must be reformed so that it only grants asylum to the very small number of people who face real personal persecution and have real evidence to support it. Undocumented immigrants must be prevented from seeking asylum at all.”
