Indian migrants in the UK are being “coached” to pretend they are Khalistani to fake asylum claims, a British newspaper investigation recently uncovered.

The Daily Mail visited a number of law firms with an undercover reporter posing as an migrant who arrived in the UK illegally on a boat.

During the investigation, the most frequent suggestion made to the undercover reporter was to pose as a farmer from Punjab and pretend to be a supporter of a Sikh separatist movement banned in India – giving him grounds for asylum, Daily Mail reported.

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One legal advisor said he would scour the internet for extra information to bolster the concocted story and was happy to send the Home Office pictures of another man who looked similar to the reporter at anti-government protests in India.

Another lawyer, VP Lingajothy, asked for £10,000 (Rs 10.6 lakh) to invent a horrific backstory to use in the asylum application. This included claims of sexual torture, beatings, slave labour, false imprisonment and death threats that left him suicidal and compelled to flee to the UK.

One of the legal advisors even promised that he could get a doctor’s report to back up a suicidal story and produce antidepressants to be given to the Home Office as ‘evidence’ of psychological trauma.

Up to 40 law firms are believed to be under the scanner by the UK authorities amid suspected asylum claim abuses.

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UK PM Rishi Sunak tweeted the story saying: “The Labour Party, a subset of lawyers, criminal gangs – they’re all on the same side, propping up a system of exploitation that profits from getting people to the UK illegally.”

Tony Smith, a former head of the UK Border Force, called for stronger checks on “rogue solicitors” who invent stories for immigration claims. He described it as “big business” and said the legal representatives were “making profits out of other people’s misery”.

“If we’re going to continue to allow lawyers to sit in on immigration interviews and represent immigrants in interviews about status, we need to be satisfied that they are properly accredited and that accreditation would demand a rigorous assessment of integrity,” Smith said, Daily Mail reported.

Many of the law firm staff enjoy wealth and prestige. But while immigrants face jail for making false asylum claims, solicitors who encourage, facilitate and profit from them merely face professional sanctions.