Lawyers in UK helping illegal immigrants with fake asylum claims: Report

The many false asylum claims that were suggested included fake human right violation appeals and posing as economic migrants for refugee status. (Representative image)

A sting operation carried out by a global English daily has revealed that some lawyers in the United Kingdom are charging as much as £10,000 to aid illegal immigrants invent false asylum claims.

The staff at several immigration law firms were found to be explaining to asylum seekers how they can lie to the authorities in a way to ensure a guaranteed stay in Britain, Mail Online said in a report.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify this report.

The many false asylum claims that were suggested included fake human rights violation appeals and posing as economic migrants for refugee status.

One of the lawyers, identified as VP Lingajothy, charged £10,000 to cook up a back story involving allegations of sexual and physical abuse, slavery, death threats, and false imprisonments to justify the migrant’s right to stay in the UK. The legal professional even assured that he could arrange for medical documents to support the false claims of trauma.

Similarly, one other lawyer said that he could not help the undercover reporter posing as an asylum seeker unless he lied at the Home Office and said that his life is in jeopardy back home. At yet another law firm, the reporter was told they would have to conjure evidence to support false claims of fear of persecution and assassination back in his motherland.

One of the lawyers also reportedly boasted of being successful in guaranteeing asylum to 90 percent of migrants with similar case history.

Many more such suggestions flowed from these immigration lawyers, ranging from political asylum on grounds of anti-government allegiance, homosexuality, forbidden love interest, victim of human trafficking, etc.

Notably, while immigrants can be jailed for making false asylum claims, solicitors who facilitate the same are only dealt with professional sanctions.

Britain received as many as 74,751 asylum applications in 2022, which is more than double that received in 2019. At present, nearly 40 solicitors’ firms are under the scanner over suspected abuse of asylum claims.

Tony Smith, a former head of the UK Border Force, was quoted by Mail Online as saying: “Coaching people to tell lies to gain an advantage in terms of an application they are making is quite wrong because we should really be working on a basis of integrity from the lawyers. If we’re going to continue to allow lawyers to sit in on immigration interviews and represent immigrants in interviews about status, we need to be satisfied that they are properly accredited and that accreditation would demand a rigorous assessment of integrity.”

As per media reports, last week, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took cognizance of the reported abuse of asylum provisions and said: “This is what we're up against…. The Labour Party, a subset of lawyers, criminal gangs – they're all on the same side, propping up a system of exploitation that profits from getting people to the UK illegally. I have a plan to stop it….”

Sunak’s government has recently been successful in getting the House of Lords to approve the Illegal Migration Bill, which will put the onus on the Home Secretary to flush out illegal migrants from the country while also altering the existing protections given to asylum seekers. The Bill aims at curbing illegal immigration, especially via small boats, by diminishing access routes for crossing the English Channel.