It is an incident that has entered Home Office folklore, gaining virtually legendary standing for instance of our damaged asylum machine. And it stays all too related nowadays.
The episode concerned an asylum seeker from an African country who claimed, like such a lot of, that he may no longer be despatched again to his hometown as a result of he can be centered for being homosexual.
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – Article 3 of that 75-year-old treaty, to be exact – prohibits ‘torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’. It is often utilized by asylum seekers to release appeals at the foundation that their non-public instances would disclose them to hurt of their house international locations.
Every such claimant is anticipated to supply convincing proof to turn they’re, certainly, in danger. However, many attempt to recreation the machine through claiming to be homosexual when they don’t seem to be.
‘There was a guy who claimed asylum on the basis he was gay and, as part of his case, he produced a photograph of himself with his arm around another man,’ a Home Office supply tells me.
The applicant was once duly granted asylum. Yet it therefore got here to mild that the individual he had his arm spherical was once his brother.
My supply says this is only one instance of many the place an applicant petitioned for the suitable to stick in Britain at the foundation of extraordinarily flimsy proof.
Indeed, handiest this week it emerged that an Albanian asylum seeker, who was once refused permission to stick in the United Kingdom in spite of claiming he was once homosexual, had then long gone directly to marry a ladies and implemented to go back to Britain to sign up for his new spouse.
The factor of asylum seekers weaponising British legislation through falsely claiming to be homosexual has even been raised through the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, pictured final 12 months
The factor of asylum seekers weaponising compassionate British legislation through falsely claiming to be homosexual has even been raised through the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who has taken the unusual step of issuing a caution to the Home Office.
His human rights team, the Peter Tatchell Foundation, used to obtain just a handful of small non-public donations on-line every week, however is unexpectedly getting as much as 30 an afternoon, accompanied through a an identical surge within the numbers signing up for a weekly publication, Tatchell has printed.
The donations all come from males from Pakistan, the place gay acts are imprisonable offences.
It seems, he says, that some can have been collating documentary proof in their touch with the gang in a bid to again up their asylum claims.
Mr Tatchell wrote to Home Office’s director-general of UK Visas and Immigration, Joanna Rowland, in January: ‘For the past 18 months, we have noticed almost daily donations of less than £3, sometimes as many as 30 in a single day.
‘It is apparent many of these donors are likely asylum applicants. We have also received emails from some of these “donors” requesting membership cards or letters for their asylum applications.’
Mr Tatchell wired that he supported authentic claims however his organisation gives beef up to asylum claimants handiest after strict tests had been performed.
‘We have no proof of wrong-doing. In our experience, asylum fraud is rare – and we intend to help keep it that way,’ he informed the Mail.
He added: ‘These waves of 15 to 30 small donations have raised our concerns. They correspond to people who soon afterwards request Peter Tatchell Foundation membership cards and letters of support for their asylum claims. We are gathering more evidence and continue to update UK Visas and Immigration.’
Mr Tatchell is infrequently a slouch in the case of advocating for homosexual rights, having been central to a variety of organisations within the box for greater than 50 years.

Peter Tatchell in 2004 when making an attempt to make repeated citizen’s arrests of then Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe
The non-public braveness he displayed within the early 2000s when making an attempt to make repeated citizen’s arrests of then Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe gained him admirers past his standard backers. When he speaks out on this method, one thing is obviously improper with the machine.
And, unfortunately, those don’t seem to be the one examples of asylum seekers making an attempt to fabricate a spurious homosexual id as a part of their bids to stick in Britain.
In March, the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber dominated on a case involving a Bangladeshi guy who got here to Britain as a pupil in February 2022 and claimed asylum 4 months later.
The courtroom ruling set out the case as follows: ‘In summary, he asserts that he fears harm upon return to Bangladesh on account of his homosexuality.
‘Since being in the United Kingdom, he claims to have engaged with the homosexual community by way of attending gay events, posting on Facebook and joining [sic] the Eagle gay club.
‘He disclosed his sexuality to a friend of his father’s, who lives in Wales, as he was once being positioned underneath force to marry a girl of his father’s opting for.
‘That information was passed on to his father and, in turn, his home village in Bangladesh. He fears both his father and Bangladeshi society.’
The Home Office had discovered his declare to be homosexual was once ‘not credible’ and, in a later enchantment, a pass judgement on reached the similar conclusion.
The unnamed pass judgement on discovered it in particular tough to provide credence to a commentary from a pal of the circle of relatives in Bangladesh that the applicant’s sexuality was once ‘big news in the village’.
‘I find that it is not credible that the appellant’s circle of relatives would have broadcast the truth the appellant was once homosexual as this may had been a question of deep disgrace to them,’ the pass judgement on stated, noting the circle of relatives good friend’s commentary perceived to had been ‘written to order’.
The Bangladeshi guy later introduced every other enchantment however misplaced once more.
It isn’t recognized whether or not within the intervening time he was once receiving taxpayer-funded beef up, or if he can now be got rid of from this nation as a failed asylum seeker.
Another infamous case from January made a mockery of the protections introduced to homosexual other people dealing with hardship.
A convicted Zimbabwean paedophile was once allowed to stick in Britain underneath Article 3 of the ECHR as a result of he would face ‘substantial hostility’ if he was once despatched again to his house nation.
On this instance, there was once no dispute that the person was once drawn to men, despite the fact that they have been kids.
But it’s tough to consider that the originators of the European Convention anticipated its protections to be deployed in favour of any individual who were jailed for greater than 5 years for sexual offences towards minors and the distribution of indecent underage pictures.
In December, the Mail on Sunday printed how a Jamaican guy who raped a drowsing lady at a birthday celebration were allowed to stick after his attorneys argued he was once bisexual and can be put in danger if deported.
In that case, the Home Office stated that, since his arrival right here 23 years in the past, there was once 0 proof of bisexuality, handiest of relationships with ladies.
Even so, the tribunal pass judgement on bizarrely approved he was once more likely to had been bisexual and blocked his deportation – a choice later upheld when the Home Office appealed to the higher tribunal judges.
And two years in the past Saheed Azeez, from Nigeria, gained asylum after claiming to be homosexual – in spite of having 3 kids through 3 ladies.
It is all a part of a rising pattern. Rapidly emerging numbers of asylum seekers are being allowed to stick in Britain at the grounds in their homosexuality.
There have been 2,133 a success claims final 12 months, up from the 762 which have been granted in 2022. In 2019 the determine stood at simply 475.

Saheed Azeez, from Nigeria (pictured), gained asylum after claiming to be homosexual – in spite of having 3 kids through 3 ladies
Home Office assets printed in 2020 that allegations of homosexuality hanging an individual in danger had change into probably the most primary arguments made in last-minute felony demanding situations to deportation.
Then, as now, the best way immigration attorneys use past due appeals – frequently on ‘human rights’ grounds – was once underneath intense scrutiny. Some claims are submitted within the ultimate seconds ahead of a deportation flight is because of take off.
There was once a in particular contentious sequence of deportation flights to Jamaica in 2020, aimed toward doing away with international criminals in addition to failed asylum seekers.
Sir Keir Starmer – a human rights attorney through background and, on the time, a candidate within the Labour management election to interchange Jeremy Corbyn – signed an open letter, which demanded ‘all future charter flights must be suspended’.
The tendency against taking asylum seekers’ claims at face worth – moderately than recognising that some will say the rest to steer clear of being placed on a airplane house – is a continual flaw some of the far-Left and, it kind of feels, the person who later changed into our Prime Minister.
In parallel, there were waves of asylum seekers who’ve made different spurious claims, together with those that declare to be Christian in a bid to steer clear of being despatched again to a rustic the place they’re going to face anti-Christian prejudice – the so-called ‘pray to stay’ phenomenon.
A decade or so in the past, there was once standard worry over sham marriages being entered into for an identical causes.
In 2012, Anglican vicar Brian Shipsides, then 56, was once jailed for four-and-a-half years for his function in about 200 sham marriages that came about in an east London church.
He admitted one rely of conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration. He had presided over the marriages at All Saints Church, Forest Gate between December 2007 and August 2010, Inner London Crown Court heard.

Brian Shipsides (pictured in 2012) was once jailed for four-and-a-half years for his function in 200 sham marriages in east London
Similarly, in 2015 a bogus couple have been arrested at a sign in place of job after the groom needed to ask his wife-to-be’s identify all the way through a gathering with the registrar. Both pretend fans have been later jailed for immigration offences.
Other asylum seekers declare to be dutiful oldsters when the proof suggests they’re not anything of the type and infrequently see their kids.
Shadow house secretary Chris Philp tells me: ‘Peter Tatchell’s proof makes it transparent that unlawful immigrants are embroidering claims to be homosexual with the intention to win asylum.
‘This is analogous to all the other claims we have seen from people who allege they have converted to Christianity, with gullible vicars providing letters of support after someone turns up at church a few times.
‘Our system is far too soft and accepts claims without solid evidence. Asylum seekers who put forward these spurious, concocted stories are taking is all for fools.
‘It is very likely that this is yet another immigration scam supported and enabled by immigration advisers. The whole system needs radical reform so it can no longer be exploited by people who are often illegal immigrants.’
In September 2023, the then Tory house secretary Suella Braverman stated that some asylum seekers ‘purport to be homosexual in the effort to game our system, in the effort to get special treatment’. She added: ‘That’s no longer truthful and it’s no longer proper.’
It resulted in her being castigated through some homosexual teams for making what they described as ‘deeply disturbing’ feedback which, they stated, ‘question the legitimacy of LGBTQI+ people claiming asylum in the UK’.
Many Left-wing force teams and different woke advocates refuse to countenance the likelihood that any declare in response to homosexuality might be fictional and depict any try to cope with such abuse as being reactionary and even homophobic.
The maximum necessary side of Mr Tatchell’s intervention is that it demonstrates the size of outrage at this type of asylum exploitation. The extra the abuse escalates, the extra other people might be keen to query its injustice.
The trans rights debate was once stopped lifeless in its tracks final month – after years of campaigning from ladies, homosexual and immediately – when the Supreme Court dominated the felony definition of a girl is in response to organic intercourse.
Perhaps that watershed judgment gives hope that not unusual sense can be triumphant. And that, someday, handiest homosexual other people dealing with authentic persecution will take pleasure in asylum protections which are rightfully set out in our regulations.