Whistleblower reveals just ‘one in 100 asylum claims are genuine’ and people from certain countries use ‘same script’

A HOME Office whistleblower has revealed just “one in 100 asylum claims are genuine” with people from certain countries using the “same script”. They added that the vetting system used was dysfunctional. The Home Office whistleblower sayss only one in 100 asylum claims are genuine (file photo) Credit: Louis Wood News Group Newspapers Ltd The official claims ‘nothing in the asylum system works as it should’ (file photo) Credit: Getty The official, who has not been identified, has worked for years as a decision-maker on asylum and has assessed thousands of claims. He also said that asylum seekers from certain countries use the “same script” in what he and others in the department called “package claims”. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! The official said he had come across a large number of Iraqi Kurds who had claimed asylum, saying they had been in a relationship with the daughter of the prime minister of the Kurdistan region. He it was a “running joke” with colleagues that the number of Iraqi Kurds who said they were involved with the daughter ran into the “hundreds”. They also said that “hundreds” of claims had been made by Pakistanis who claimed their lives were in dangers in their home country because of their gay relationship with the same man who had supplied letters backing up their claims. He also raised suspicions about large numbers of Bangladeshi claimants saying they were dissidents of the former governing party which has now been banned, even though they couldn’t provide basic information about the group. The revelations come after a mega-dinghy with 140 people on board crossed the Channel on Sunday after it set off from a beach near Cherbourg, in Normandy. French officials claimed it was not safe to stop the dinghy at sea. Most read in The Sun British lifeboat crews brought the migrants safely to the UK. The Home Office official, only referred to as “J” told The Times: “At best 1 per cent of asylum seekers are genuine. “There’s almost no aspect of the asylum system that isn’t either a massive fraud or just really dysfunctional. Nothing works as it should.” He said the large scale of fake claims was possible due to the interview system used by the Home Office to check asylum applications. When asylum seekers arrive in the UK or lodge an asylum claim, the whistleblower said the have a brief “screening interview” where basic information is gathered. J said asylum seekers were often “extremely vague” in the interview. Then months later a more “substantive interview” takes place which can last several hours. This, J said, gave the applicant time to prepare, get advice, and see what fake evidence they can get before committing to a story at the full interview. He called for the government to change the process so applicants had to explain their reasoning immediately upon claiming asylum. J said the delay just gives them time to prepare but they shouldn’t need to prepare as events have already happened to them. He added though the Home Office had sped up the decision-making on asylum cases, which had reduced the time between the initial screening and the substantive interview but added that many “just get a sick note”. This, he said, just gives them more time to prepare and get advice and gather “fake evidence”. He added there was a culture in Home Office teams that created an inherent bias to accept claims. A decision-maker must grant the claim if they think the claimant is “more likely than not” telling the truth. Approving an asylum claim takes “half an hour tops”, meanwhile rejections can take several hours. When a claim is rejected the official must respond to every claim made by the asylum seeker, often to an extent that he described as “infantile”. J also said officials were told by bosses to call asylum seekers “customers,” which he thought reflected a culture where they were providing a service to them and not the country. After a BBC investigation which exposed a shadow industry of law firms and immigration advisers who helped asylum seekers lodge fake claims by pretending to be gay, the Home Office has launched an investigation. J claimed he and colleagues had come across “hundreds” of claims from Pakistani asylum seekers claiming to have the same boyfriend, who had provided letters supporting their claims to be gay. J said he had provided “hundreds upon hundreds” of “obviously fake letters of support”. As for asylum seekers from Bangladesh, J said over the past couple of years there had been a large rise in those claiming the faced political persecution due to their membership of the Awami League, which fell from power in 2024 and its party activities have now been banned in the country. J claimed though that many applications were unable to provide substantive details about its policies even though many claimed to have held high-ranking positions in the party. The whistleblower also said applications were often supported by “fake police documents” which used the same judge’s name “again and again”, the same magistrate and the same location. But, J said, Home Office decision-makers were banned from contacting the origin countries to verify the documents due to international confidentiality rules to protect the applicant from persecution in their country. Pakistan and Bangladesh are among the top nationalities claiming asylum in the UK and almost nine in ten of all claims are from individuals who came to the UK on a work, study or visitor visa and overstayed. A Home Office study in 2024 revealed Pakistan accounted for the largest number of asylum seekers claiming to be gay or bisexual. In recent years the rate of asylum seekers being given asylum has dropped significantly. The latest figures show that 42,394 people were granted refugee protection in the year to June, out of 115,394 initial decisions – a rate of 37 per cent. That’s down from a peak of 76 per cent in 2022. The Home Office said asylum claims were carried out on an individual basis by trained decision-makers who assess all available evidence, including their account, any supporting documentation and information relevant to their country. It added there were well-established processes to assess the credibility of claims and to identify fraud. The department said the international rules around “confidentiality obligations” prevented it from contacting the applicant’s home country about their asylum claim as it could put the individual at risk if their claim was genuine. A Home Office spokesperson said: “We do not comment on anonymous briefings. “The home secretary has been clear that those trying to defraud the British people to remain in the UK will have their application refused and find themselves on a one-way flight out of Britain.” Comment now