A BBC investigation claims to have uncovered a “shadow industry of law firms and advisers” helping migrants who entered the U.K. legally pose as gay in order to obtain asylum visas.

In a report published Wednesday, the BBC says its undercover reporter spoke with people associated with two immigration law firms who offered to help him fabricate evidence that would allow him to apply for asylum on the grounds that he is gay and fears persecution in his home country. The two people reportedly offered their services for fees up to £7,000 ($9,500).

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According to the outlet, the reporter initially approached Mazedul Hasan Shakil, a paralegal at Law & Justice Solicitors and founder and chairman of Worcester LGBT, a support group for gay and lesbian asylum seekers, who told him that he did not appear to have grounds to claim asylum. However, Shakil reportedly connected the undercover reporter with Tanisa Khan, who reportedly works as an adviser to Worcester LGBT. According to the BBC, Khan is not a regulated immigration adviser and cannot legally provide immigration advice.

Kahn reportedly detailed a “comprehensive package” of fabricated evidence including a backstory, photos of the reporter at LGBTQ+ clubs, letters from organizations, and photos with and a letter from a person who would claim to have been in a same-sex relationship with the reporter. Kahn also reportedly told him that if his asylum claim was successful, she could help him bring his wife to the U.K. from Pakistan.

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“Once she’s here, we can make her a lesbian,” Kahn reportedly said.  

She also advised the reporter to attend Worcester LGBT meetings. At one of those meetings, two men reportedly told the reporter that the majority of the 175 people in attendance were not actually gay.

Khan, who spoke to the undercover reporter in Urdu, later claimed to the BBC that her comments had been misunderstood as she is not fluent in the language. Shakil, the paralegal and support group founder, told the outlet he had been unaware that Khan would offer to fabricate an asylum claim and that Worcester LGBT would investigate her conduct. Law & Justice Solicitors said it was investigating whether she’d been given “unauthorized access” to its offices.

The BBC also says its undercover reporter met with Aqeel Abbasi, a senior legal adviser at Connaught Law, who similarly offered to help fabricate an asylum claim for a fee.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Wednesday, BBC politics investigation correspondent Billy Kenber, who co-wrote the report with politics reporter Phil Kemp, said BBC News had evidence to suggest that fraudulent asylum claims are a significant issue among immigrants who come to the U.K. on student, work, or tourist visas, rather than migrants who enter the country illegally.

Kenber described the phenomenon as “a potentially ballooning industry,” and Ejel Khan, the founder of the Muslim LGBT Network, told the BBC that it is “a vast problem.” The outlet spoke with one Pakistani man who claimed to have tried unsuccessfully to obtain an asylum visa by posing as gay on the advice of a U.K. lawyer. But, he claimed, three of his friends who lied about being gay were granted asylum.

However, it’s notable that the BBC’s report only cites two people with connections to U.K. law firms; leaving it unclear how widespread this alleged practice actually may be.

The BBC’s investigation comes less than three years after former U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman made headlines for casting doubt on the validity of LGBTQ+ asylum claims.

“People do game the system — they purport to be homosexual in the effort to game our system, in the effort to get special treatment,” she claimed at the time. “I’m afraid we do see many instances when people purport to be gay when they’re not actually gay.”

On BBC Breakfast, Kenber noted that “there are clearly many genuine applicants” for asylum in the U.K. “Asylum is there to offer protection to people that might be genuinely in fear of their life in their home country,” he said.

But as Ana Gonzalez told Kenber and Kemp, fraudulent claims are “just really making things harder for the legitimate asylum seekers and refugees out there,” particularly when it comes to claims based on something as “intangible” as LGBTQ+ identity.  

“When you are a victim of torture, when certain things happen to you, often there is a way of evidencing that, in an objective way,” Gonzalez explained. “When it comes to the queer community, it is not. It is just based on contact and on how you actually present and how convincing you can be on that particular day, irrespective of whether you’re telling the truth or not.”

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