EXCLUSIVE The shocking truth about the rise in asylum seekers pretending to be gay so they can stay in Britain: How men are passing off their brothers as their boyfriends and using charities to 'manufacture' fake homosexual identities
It is an incident that has entered Home Office folklore, gaining almost mythical status as an illustration of our broken asylum system. And it remains all too relevant today.
The episode involved an asylum seeker from an African nation who claimed, like so many, that he could not be sent back to his homeland because he would be targeted for being gay.
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BBC News
43 minutes ago
- BBC News
Government accused of blaming record crossings on the weather
Good weather and the willingness of people smugglers to cram more people onto small boats have been highlighted by the government as factors driving the level of migrant Channel Home Office has released figures showing that the number of "red days" - when conditions are considered favourable for small boat crossings - peaked in figures also show a rise in "severely overcrowded boats" in the same Conservatives and Reform have accused the government of "blaming the weather" for the record crossings so far this year. The government has said it is working to fix "a broken asylum system" left by the Tories. Rising numbers The Home Office figures reveal there were 190 red days in the 12 months to April 2025 - an 80% increase on the previous year and the highest number since records days are defined as days which the Met Office has assessed as "likely" or "highly likely" to see small boat crossings, based on things like the height of waves, wind speed and rainfall. By publishing the red day figures, the first official release of this kind, the government is suggesting a link between good weather conditions and the level of migrant far this year, 14,812 people have arrived in small boats - up about 40% on the same period last year. Almost 1,200 people arrived on Saturday alone. BBC Verify asked Peter Walsh from the Migration Observatory, based at the University of Oxford, exactly what impact the weather has on Channel said it was a factor but other issues, such as the effectiveness of smuggling gangs and the number of people wanting to reach the UK are likely to be more important."A migrant's decision to come to the UK by small boat is important and life-changing for them: will they casually drop their plans and decide not to migrate because of a few consecutive days of bad weather? Or will they just wait until the next safe-weather day," he told BBC acknowledging that gangs have exploited periods of good weather to increase crossings, a Home Office spokesperson insisted the government is "restoring grip to the broken asylum system it inherited"."That's why we are giving counter-terror style powers to law enforcement, launching an unprecedented international crackdown on immigration crime and have prevented 9,000 crossings from the French coastline this year alone", the spokesperson said. Responding to the red day figures, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, said:"Blaming the weather for the highest ever crossing numbers so far this year is the border security equivalent of a lazy student claiming 'the dog ate my homework'."Reform MP Lee Anderson said: "This Labour government blaming small boat crossings on the weather is like blaming the housing crisis on homebuilders - it's pathetic." More people per boat The figures also show a rise in what the Home Office has called "severely overcrowded small boats".In the year to April 2025, there were 33 boats which carried 80 or more people on year before, there were only 11 boats with 80 or more people and there was just one of these boats recorded in the year to April 2023. While the number of people per boat has increased, the total number of boats has fallen from 1,116 in 2021–22 to 738 last year a record number of people died attempting to cross the channel in small boats, something which the Home Office attributes to "more people [being] crammed into flimsy and dangerous boats" by people smugglers. What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Massachusetts students and teachers protest teen's ‘inhumane' arrest by Ice
Students at Massachusetts's Milford high school staged a walkout Monday to show support for their classmate Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, who was headed to volleyball practice when he was detained over the weekend by US immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) agents who were actually looking for his father. Gomes Da Silva, a Brazilian national, entered the US in 2012 on a student visa, according to a court document since filed by his lawyer. The filing states that Gomes Da Silva's student visa status has since lapsed – but that he is eligible for and intends to apply for asylum. Currently a junior at Milford high school, Gomes Da Silva has 'no criminal history anywhere in the world', his lawyer maintained. He was reportedly being held at Ice's Boston field office, and his attorney filed a petition seeking his immediate release, arguing that his detention was unlawful. Da Silva's plight has inspired protests. On Monday, many students at Milford high school staged a walkout in solidarity with Gomes Da Silva, holding signs and wearing T-shirts that said 'Free Marcelo'. The Massachusetts Teachers Association issued a statement on Monday supporting the walkout and condemning Ice's actions as 'cruel' and 'inhumane'. 'Milford students are leading and their educators are following with admiration, moved by their commitment to do what is right and their solidarity with a classmate in need,' the statement said. 'Communities are rising,' the statement added. 'Just yesterday, 200 Milford teachers joined students in their march and rally, standing together in unity and taking their lead. We are inspired by the brave young people who walked out in protest.' A day earlier, Gomes Da Silva was a conspicuous absence at Milford high school's graduation ceremony. According to the Boston Globe, he had been scheduled to perform with the school band at the commencement. After the ceremony, the Boston Globe reported that hundreds of students and community members marched to Milford town hall to protest Gomes Da Silva's detention and call for his release. Also Sunday, a judge issued a order barring Ice from transferring him out of Massachusetts for at least 72 hours. A second order issued Monday stated that Gomes Da Silva 'shall not be moved outside the district of Massachusetts without providing the court 48 hours' advance notice of the move and the reason therefore' while the court considers the high schooler's lawsuit. The judge also gave the government 14 days to respond to the petition. During a news conference on Monday, the acting director of Ice, Todd Lyons, defended the agency's actions, telling reporters that Da Silva was 'in this country illegally and we're not going to walk away from anybody'. Lyons said that immigration agents made the traffic stop because they were looking for Gomes Da Silva's father, who Lyons said was in the US without legal status. Lyons said that Gomes Da Silva was driving his father's vehicle when he was pulled over and detained. 'He was not the target of the investigation,' added Patricia Hyde, the acting director of enforcement and removal operations at Ice's Boston field office. 'He's 18 years old – and he's unlawfully in this country. Unfortunately, we had to go to Milford to look for someone else, and we came across him – he was arrested.' Lyons added that when authorities encounter someone in the country who is here illegally, 'we will take action on that'. 'We're doing the job that Ice should have been doing all along,' Lyons said. 'We enforce all immigration laws.' Over the weekend, Maura Healey, the Massachusetts Democratic governor, condemned Gomes Da Silva's arrest, saying that she was 'disturbed and outraged'.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi speaks of 'sexual torture' in Tanzania
Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing.A Kenyan activist has told the BBC that he is "struggling to be alive" after allegedly being sexually tortured in detention in Tanzania last Mwangi said he had decided to speak despite the "shame and guilt of being sodomised with all manner of things".Mwangi said he was held in Tanzania after going to the country to show solidarity with detained opposition politician Tundu a press conference in Kenya's capital, Mwangi tearfully claimed that he was stripped naked, hung upside down, beaten on his feet and sexually assaulted while police chief in Tanzania's main city of Dar es Salaam disputed Mwangi's account and told the BBC they were "opinions" and "hearsay" coming from activists. "If they were here, I would engage them, I would ask them what are they saying, what do they mean... In law, those things are called hearsay or hearsay evidence," Jumanne Muliro told the said Mwangi should make a report to the authorities for President Samia Suluhu Hassan's government has been accused by rights groups of becoming increasingly repressive in the run-up to October's presidential and parliamentary rights groups have called for an investigation, and Amnesty International said Tanzanian authorities should hold to account those responsible for the "inhuman" said he was held by Tanzanian authorities for several days along with Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, who had earlier also spoken of being raped in attended the press conference in Nairobi on Monday, where Mwangi described his sexual assault in graphic detail. He said his torturers would sexually assault him and tell him to say "asante" (thank you in the Swahili language) to their added that the officers told him they were filming everything and would leak the footage if he spoke about what he had gone told the BBC Newsday programme that the torture had left him in mental anguish."You have a lot of nightmares, you have a lot of thoughts, and you're alone in the dark, and you're thinking you're going to get killed. So that entire mental anguish lives with you," he activist alleges she was raped while in Tanzanian detentionTanzania president warns 'meddling' Kenyan activistsMwangi said he wanted his medical records be made public so that "what happened to me should never happen to anyone else"."I have wounds all over my body, I have wounds on my private parts, I have wounds on my feet, I have two broken toes, I have fractures… So I'm still struggling".Mwangi and Atuhaire were among several activists who travelled to Tanzania two weeks ago in solidarity with Lissu who was appearing in court on treason charges that he denies. He has been demanding sweeping changes, saying current laws do not allow for free and fair polls, which the government was arrested on 9 April following his rallying call of "no reforms, no election". Mwangi told the BBC that their visit to Tanzania was to highlight Lissu's "sham case", adding that this "wasn't taken lightly" by the Hassan warned at the time that she would not allow activists from neighbouring countries to "meddle" in Tanzania's whereabouts of Mwangi and Atuhaire were unknown while they were being held, sparking widespread said his "abduction" was shocking in how brazen it was as he had been "picked from a very prominent hotel". "So having been abducted during broad daylight and never knowing where I was, and I was still tortured, means that the Tanzanian government doesn't care about what people think about it," he told the Atuhaire said that despite Uganda being "very dictatorial", she did not imagine she "would find a worse foreign country, a worse government".Mwangi said their experience showed "how broken" countries in East Africa were. "So it makes me more of a pan-African in this fight," he told the US Department of State's Bureau of Africa Affairs previously said it was deeply concerned by the reports of the two activists' mistreatment, noting that Atuhaire had been recognised by the department "in 2024 as an International Women of Courage Awardee".Other activists, including Kenya's former Justice Minister Martha Karua and former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga were blocked from entering and were deported from the international airport in Dar es reporting by Munira Hussein in Dar es Salaam. You may also be interested in: Kenyan president apologises to Tanzania over deportation rowCould this be the end of the road for Lissu, Tanzania's great survivor?Why Samia's hesitant reforms are fuelling Tanzanian political anger'Manhandled and choked' - Tanzanian activist recounts abduction Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
