They have been allowed to remain here after claiming that they are gay, depressed or suffering from minor ailments such as headaches, nightmares and stomach ulcers.

The whistleblower accused the government of operating an “unpublicised” policy to help thousands of asylum seekers, whose applications have already been rejected, to settle in Britain by the back door.

He claims the Home Office has been manipulating the statistics by removing the failed asylum seekers from the appeals system and offering them “exceptional” leave to remain.

In a nine-page statement, Anwar Rizvi, an interpreter employed by the Department for Constitutional Affairs in the asylum appeal courts, details a series of “scams” he says have brought the asylum system into disrepute and made a “mockery” of government policy.

His claims are supported by court records which show that in the past two years 52 asylum seekers have dragged out their stay in Britain by making unfounded claims they were gay, lesbian or stressed. Thirty-three claimed they needed refuge because they had suffered stress and a further 19 said they would suffer because they were homosexual. Among the most dubious excuses revealed in court records are:

• A woman who said she would be persecuted if she returned to India because she had committed adultery.
• A man from Serbia and Montenegro who appealed against deportation because he had stomach ulcers and suffered from “sleep disturbance”.
• A refugee whose lawyers said he could not answer questions due to “mild depression”.
• A woman who said she needed to look after her brother who suffered “high blood pressure and a lack of self-esteem”.
• A man from the former Yugoslavia who said he suffered from “nightmares” and “anguished” stress.

Rizvi says: “Many of the asylum seekers know that the longer their case drags on, the better their chances of staying here. This has led in recent years to the granting of exceptional leave to remain by the Home Office to many thousands of failed asylum seekers.

“The main reason is . . . these people had been in the system so long the only way to bring the asylum figures down was to get large numbers of people out of the system by granting them exceptional leave. In almost all the cases the initial asylum applications had been rejected.”

David Davis, shadow home secretary, said: “This is continuing evidence of the chaos and confusion of Labour’s shambolic immigration system.”

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