Question Time migrants who grilled Zia Yusuf coached by charity before BBC show | UK | News
Channel migrants, who recently appeared on the BBC’s Question Time program, came face to face with Reform UK’s then policy chief, Zia Yusuf, on the programme. An investigation revealed that they were placed in the program with the help of the charity Imix, an organization that aims to change the British public’s perception of immigration. The episode was filmed in Dover in December and featured two immigrants, including an Iranian man, reading a prepared declaration about the value of international law protecting refugees.
Yusuf later said he was ‘ambushed’ on the programme, and the episode received more than 100 complaints from viewers. The two asylum seekers’ attendance at Question Time was supervised by Imix’s chief executive Jenni Regan, an investigation by Imix revealed. Telegram. During the show, Regan was also chosen to ask questions. Ashraf, one of the men who was granted refugee status, said that he fled his hometown Afghanistan “because it was not safe”.
The BBC said Imix was one of several organizations contacted before the episode was filmed. It was stated that the producers were trying to “find audience members who could offer different perspectives on the debate around immigration in the UK”.
It was stated that the episode aimed to encourage debate between opposing views and that immigrants were challenged during the demonstration.
A spokesperson for Imix said: “For the BBC’s Question Time immigration special, the program approached local charities working in the sector, including Imix, to help include people with lived experience of seeking asylum in the audience.
“Helping journalists and productions connect with people with relevant experience is a normal part of the work of a charity press office. Journalists from across the political spectrum, including those from the Telegraph, have made similar requests to us and we are helping where we can.
“We helped identify two people who wanted to take part and supported them in advance so they felt informed and prepared. Both have legal refugee status and have settled in the UK with their families and jobs, and both chose to take part voluntarily. Decisions about the program and its audience were the BBC’s.”
A spokesman for Reform UK said: “It is no surprise that Question Time: Immigration Special sparked so many complaints. The program represented a clear failure of impartiality, editorial judgment and audience selection by the BBC.”
“We are seeing an increasingly blatant pattern of bias and prejudice from the taxpayer-funded broadcaster.
“The question remains why the BBC thought it was appropriate to provide men who entered Britain illegally with a national platform that allowed them to lecture the British public and manipulate views on the immigration crisis?”
