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

Chaos in Britain's asylum system must be stopped before "more people are injured or killed", a whistleblower has alleged. Home Office staff can approve claims from asylum seekers charged with crimes as long as the offence would not lead to a sentence of 12 months or more, a caseworker said.

The whistleblower said she was disciplined for refusing an asylum claim from an Afghan arrested for exposing himself in a children's play area. And she claimed terrorists, extremists and dangerous criminals have all been granted asylum.

She told The Telegraph: "Of course they have.

"Why wouldn't a terror cell come over on a boat and say they're from a high grant country? It's the easiest way to get in. Terrifying really. It's unsustainable, it's dangerous, it's got to stop before more people are injured or killed."

Caseworkers are under pressure to approve claims from high grant-rate countries, the whistleblower said.

Highlighting which countries have high grant-rates, the caseworker said: "Afghanistan, Eritrea, Kuwait and Sudan at the moment. The 'high grant' countries used to include Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq. Eritrea is on the list because we can't return anyone to a country with enforced military conscription because it's against their human rights."

And more African migrants are claiming they are from Eritrea, "Because they know they'll automatically get asylum."

She added: "It's a joke."

Staff in the Home Office are bemused and frustrated over orders to grant high numbers of applications from certain countries, the whistleblower said.

The caseworker said: "We all sit there and go 'how come this is allowed?' Before things went pear-shaped in Afghanistan, we had loads of Afghan claims and they were mainly all refusals. It was safe to go back to Afghanistan.

"Then, after the Taliban took over, we were given our refusals back and told we had to reassess. I always run the Police National Computer (PNC) check and the terrorist check (Warnings Index Control Unit, WICU). And the first guy I had to reassess, it came up that he'd been arrested multiple times for indecent exposure in children's play areas.

"So I said, 'I'm refusing. He's a wrong'un'.

"And my senior manager said we can't refuse an Afghan, we've got to grant. And I said I wouldn't do it because a man who exposes himself in front of kids - well, where's that going to end? And they said you've got to make the decision on the basis of the claim - he can't be returned because he says he was politically active in Afghanistan against the Taliban.

"Just one anti-regime post on social media and he can say he's politically active. But I still refused to make the grant, and I got disciplined for that."

"I was refusing that man because of criminal activity and because I believed he posed a threat to children, but he was never going to receive a jail sentence for indecent exposure; he was just getting repeated warnings. So they gave his case to someone else who was prepared to say yes."

Some 111,084 people applied for protection in the year to June, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.

This is up 14% from 97,107 in the year to June 2024 and nearly double the number in 2021.

The most common nationalities among asylum applicants in the year to 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 appeals pending, with decisions taking an average of one year to be heard.

The whistleblower said migrants will repeatedly change their stories in a bid to stay: "For example, an Iranian will say, 'I'm claiming asylum because I was politically active against the regime'. There's no evidence to prove that, and we feel like it's safe for him to return. Then, he'll say, 'Well, I'm a Christian convert now', although he never mentioned that before.

"And when I ask him about Easter, he says Easter is to do with 'chocolate eggs' and has never heard of the resurrection.

"But if there's a live claim lodged, it's a barrier to removal, and we still have to house him and fund him. Now, men like him will go through the whole process again till they get to appeal rights exhausted, and then they'll lodge a further submissions claim to say, 'Well, I'm homosexual now'.

"It's a carousel, just going round and round and round. We're just browbeaten.

"That's how we feel in asylum.

"We feel browbeaten because we read in the press that we're rubbish. It's not us.

"The ones at the coalface are doing the best we possibly can. We're in a lose-lose [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 characterisation of these concerns as presented.

"The integrity of the UK immigration system is paramount. We operate within a robust framework of safeguards and quality assurance measures to ensure that all claims are thoroughly assessed, decisions are well-founded, and protection is granted only to those who meet the established criteria.

"We are changing the law so individuals convicted of sexual offences cannot be granted asylum in the UK."