Bogus websites, staged protests and pretend atheists: Inside the fake asylum industry

Bogus websites, staged protests and pretend atheists: Inside the fake asylum industry5 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleBilly Kenber,Politics investigations correspondent,Phil Kemp,Politics reporterandSajid Iqbal,News reporterBBCLawyer Zahid Hasan Akhand was filmed by an undercover reporter From fake news websites to staged political protests and bogus medical conditions, asylum seekers and the advisers helping them are using an array of fabricated evidence to bolster their fake claims.It all amounts to a sham industry, which includes charging migrants for advice on how to pose as gay to claim asylum, as exposed by the first part of our undercover investigation into the immigration system. Other techniques include paying to write articles in atheist magazines and hiring someone to pretend to be a same-sex partner.At an office off the busy Mile End Road, in east London, on a Tuesday evening in early April, our undercover reporter was receiving an instruction course in how to apply for asylum.Posing as a Bangladeshi student who had just dropped out of his university course, he had said he was looking at asylum as a way to stay in the country.Now Zahid Hasan Akhand, who introduced himself as a barrister, was talking him through the different options and how to dupe the Home Office.Gay, atheist or political activist There were three routes to asylum for someone in his situation: as someone who faced persecution for their sexual orientation, their religious beliefs or their political views.Akhand said he would handle the legal side, but it was up to the undercover reporter to choose whether he wanted to pretend to be gay, an atheist or a political activist.All of the options would take work. For a legal fee of £1,500, Akhand would help him in "preparing your application, preparing you for the interview, taking repeated mock interviews".But the reporter would also need to create evidence in order to convince the Home Office that he was not faking hi...