Asylum seeker chaos as whistleblower exposes how terrorists and criminals are allowed in | Politics | News

The chaos in Britain’s asylum system must be stopped “before more people are injured or killed”, a whistleblower has claimed. Home Office staff can approve requests from asylum seekers accused of crime, provided the offense does not lead to a prison sentence of 12 months or more, a social worker said.

The whistleblower said that an Afghan man who was arrested for exposing himself in a children’s playground was disciplined for refusing his asylum request. He claimed that terrorists, extremists and dangerous criminals were given asylum.

He told The Telegraph: “Of course there is.

“Why wouldn’t a terrorist cell come by boat and say they’re from a high-grant country? That’s the easiest way in. It’s truly terrifying. It’s unsustainable, it’s dangerous, it needs to stop before more people get hurt or killed.”

The tipster said caseworkers were under pressure to approve requests from countries with high grant rates.

The social worker highlighted which countries had high grant rates: “Currently Afghanistan, Eritrea, Kuwait and Sudan. The ‘high grant’ countries included Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq. Eritrea is on the list because we cannot send anyone back to a country with compulsory military service because it is against their human rights.”

And more and more African immigrants claim to be from Eritrea: “Because they know they will automatically receive asylum.”

He added: “This is a joke.”

The whistleblower said Home Office staff were stunned and disappointed by orders to accept large numbers of applications from certain countries.

The social worker said: “We all sat there wondering ‘how is this allowed?’ we say. Before things went wrong in Afghanistan, Afghans had many claims, most of which were denials. It was safe to return to Afghanistan.

“Then, after the Taliban took over, those we had rejected were handed back to us and told we needed to re-evaluate. I always ran the National Police Computer (PNC) check and the terrorist check (Warning Index Control Unit, WICU). And the first person I had to re-evaluate turned out to have been arrested multiple times for indecent exposure in children’s playgrounds.”

“And I said, ‘I refuse. He’s wrong.’

“And my senior manager said we can’t reject an Afghan, we have to accept. And I said I wouldn’t do it because a man who exposes himself in front of children – well, where is this going to end? And they said you have to decide based on the allegation – it’s irreversible because he says he’s politically active in Afghanistan against the Taliban.”

“He could say he was politically active with just one anti-regime post on social media. But I still refused to donate and was disciplined for that.”

“I was rejecting this man because of his criminal activity and because I believed he posed a threat to children, but he was never going to get jail time for indecent exposure; he was just getting repeated warnings. So they handed his case to someone else who was ready to say yes.”

By June, approximately 111,084 people had applied for protection; This is the highest figure in a 12-month period since current records began in 2001.

This is almost double the figure in 2021, up 14% from 97,107 in the year to June 2024.

The most common nationalities among those applying for asylum through June 2025 were Pakistani (10.1% of the total), Afghan (7.5%), Iranian (7.0%) and Eritrean (6.7%).

There are also approximately 51,000 asylum applications pending and it takes an average of one year for decisions to be heard.

The whistleblower said migrants will change their stories repeatedly in order to stay: “For example, an Iranian will say: ‘I am seeking asylum because I am politically active against the regime.’ There is no evidence to prove this, and we think it is safe for him to return. Then he will say, ‘I have now converted to Christianity,’ even though he never mentioned it before.”

“When I asked him about Easter, he said Easter was about ‘chocolate eggs’ and that he had never heard of the resurrection.

“But if a living request is made, that’s a bar to deportation, and we still have to accommodate and fund it. Now guys like him are going to go through the whole process again until their appeal rights are exhausted, and then they’re going to file another application saying, ‘I’m gay now.’

“It’s a merry-go-round, it goes round and round. We just frown.”

“This is how we feel when we are in the shelter.

“We feel frowned upon because we read in the press that we are garbage. This is not us.”

“The people at the coalface are doing the best they can. We’re in a lose-lose situation.” [situation].”

A Home Office spokesman said: “We take all allegations seriously and are committed to addressing any concerns appropriately. However, we do not accept the characterization of these concerns as presented.”

“The integrity of the UK immigration system is of utmost importance. We work within a robust framework of safeguarding and quality assurance measures to ensure that all requests are assessed comprehensively, decisions are well-founded and protection is only granted to those who meet set criteria.

“We are changing the law so that people convicted of sexual offenses cannot be granted asylum in the UK.”