Gay folks who claim asylum have to “out” themselves to bureaucrats who ask invasive and demeaning questions, face stigma from their broader communities, have to deal with abuse from people sharing their accommodation. The idea it’s “easy” to just pretend to be gay for asylum is breathtakingly false.
1/3 Following recent reporting on LGBTQI+ asylum claims, we share the concerns highlighted by @rainbowmigration.bsky.social.
"The asylum system is hostile and complex, and particularly difficult for LGBTQI+ people...
www.rainbowmigration.org.uk/news/behavio...
Thank you. Credibility is huge in asylum claims, people are routinely disbelieved and wrongly refused. Strong supporting evidence is also needed in DV cases. These articles make it sound like it's so easy to 'game the system', which couldn't be further from the truth.
The BBC’s claims on MVDAC-DVILR misuse do not reflect frontline reality. We see victim-survivors facing disbelief, delays, and barriers to safety. Misuse is the exception, not the norm.
With 92 organisations, we have published this statement today:
southallblacksisters.org.uk/news/false-d...
BBC’s claims on MVDAC-DVILR misuse do not reflect frontline reality. Misuse is the exception, not the norm.
With 92 organisations, we reject this framing and call for evidence-led debate rooted in lived experience.
Read the full statement: southallblacksisters.org.uk/news/false-d...
BBCs coverage isn't just misleading, it is inflammatory. It has predictably been latched onto by the far right and others, including this government, to call for even more restrictions on those seeking asylum. Along with others, I explain here how wrong it is 👇
www.thenational.scot/news/2602505...
Recent BBC articles highlight misconduct by a small number of unscrupulous advisers who charge thousands to fabricate asylum claims. This is fraud & must be stopped. But the coverage is selective, harmful & risks obscuring the wider reality of access to legal advice. 🧵
Yes! By all means, prosecute the unscrupulous criminals profiting from people's desperation. Don't demonise those they fleece!
So much this. It's already so difficult to succeed in these cases and the process is gruelling. Lack of evidence and rage-bait angle of the BBC is beyond irresponsible. This will only further demonise vulnerable people at the mercy of predators waiting to cash in on their desperation and fear.
BBC editorial staff should re-read their immigration review
The corporation struggles to cover well stuff that is not politically contested or controversial
It should cover controversial issues but it risks reinforcing major public misperceptions on key issues
www.bbc.co.uk/news/enterta...
Aahh, there it is 🤦♀️ any pretense of 'impartiality' and professional standards right out the window. Shockingly irresponsible by the BBC. When government says jump they now just say how high?
It’s genuinely staggering how little substance there is to today’s instalment of the BBC’s attempt to create a national crisis out of a few unproven allegations of immigration fraud 1/
We are aware of the BBC’s investigation into individuals allegedly helping people fabricate LGBTQI+ asylum claims. Read the full statement on our website:
This stuff is so stupid honestly, but also incredibly harmful and it distorts the reality of these claims, which is of a degrading and dehumanising system in which queer people are often disbelieved about their identity and returned to danger.
This story is based entirely on dodgy advisers lying to potential clients to get money out of them. The one person they actually spoke to who used this 'service' was rejected and returned to Pakistan and has since been blocked from returning to the UK.
The real scandal of the asylum system is the cruelty & incompetence which 1000s of people endure every day but which rarely gets spotlighted at the top of the BBC News site.
Dan here nails much of what makes me uncomfortable about the BBC’s “fake gay refugees” story but here’s a few more points 1/
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The thing is once you have implicitly accepted that your immigration reforms are a horrible unprincipled mess that everyone hates, you cannot try and hold on to random bits of cruelty within them without looking very foolish. And everyone will still hate them. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
The principle should be that people who've lived here long enough shouldn’t have to keep re-applying to stay every couple of years, especially given the eye-watering cost of applying.
And they should be welcome to apply for citizenship, for which settlement is (currently) a legal prerequisite 3/
And you might also ask yourself why the Home Office might be threatening to abolish a tribunal in which it - staggeringly - fails to defend the majority of the negative decisions it makes.
Around 50%, maybe up to 60%, of asylum seekers whose claims initially fail but whose appeals are considered are successful.
But you won’t learn that here⬇️, as the BBC is fully bought into the rightwing framing that the only relevant figure is how many people are in the backlog and/or live in hotels
I don't know where this narrative of "permanent" refugee status came from (right wing press), but it is wrong. The change is from a single grant of five years' leave followed by the ability to apply for settlement
💯 this
”Something ineffable endures”, yes the unchanging readiness of the Labour Party to throw migrants under a bus in the hope of political advancement
6/ Ultimately we need to reject the framing of Mahmood and the far right whose ideas she's adopting, that migration is bad and numbers need to be restricted.
5/ Numbers games are inherently debasing. We must do more to reduce the underlying causes of forced migration - no-one should have to flee their home in fear of their life or freedom.
But if people do have to, it should be our pleasure & privilege to welcome them & help them rebuild their lives.
‼️The asylum changes the Home Secretary brought in today are cruel, unjust, and will only make it harder for people to put down roots and rebuild their lives in safety.
When immigration status has to be 'earned', exploitation becomes easier. Longer, conditional routes to settlement don’t just create insecurity; they give exploitative employers more power and silence survivors. Read more: www.atleu.org.uk/cases-news/e...
#ModernSlavery #EarnedSettlement
