Home Office officials are being hoodwinked by fraudulent asylum seekers who are falsely claiming to be from war-torn Eritrea, a Mail investigation can reveal.
In several video calls, seen by this newspaper, migrants brazenly boasted about how they obtained asylum in the UK by pretending to be persecuted by Eritrea’s authoritarian regime.
Instead, they come from Ethiopia, the neighbouring – and much safer – East African country.
discovered a network of thousands sharing huge swathes of training material to convince case officers they are from Eritrea – because it has a 99 per cent success rate for asylum claims.
Despite being a country of just 3.6million, Eritreans have made up the fourth-largest group of asylum seekers in the UK in the last three years.
One Ethiopian migrant, Michaele Abraha, an Uber driver living in London, has racked up tens of thousands of views on TikTok where he brags of how he was given asylum in the UK by pretending to be Eritrean – and teaches others how to do the same.
The Home Office has said it has now launched an investigation into Abraha after the MoS submitted evidence of his claims.
Robert Jenrick, the former Immigration Minister, last night described the Mail’s bombshell findings as ‘a national security emergency’.
Mr Jenrick said: ‘Sir Keir Starmer has surrendered to the people smuggling gangs. Instead of beefing up plans to remove illegal boat migrants in a matter of days, as my amendments supported by colleagues would have done, he granted them an amnesty. Now it’s open season and these chancers are taking our country for a ride.
‘This is a national security emergency and the British public are rightly sick of it. It’s got to be stopped.’
The investigation today reveals how:
• Abraha tells migrants to pretend to be under-18 to help speed up their asylum claim – and explains how to ‘act like a child’;
• In one Telegram group with 3,500 members, Ethiopians are sharing training guides for how to pretend to be Eritrean – including photos and documents on notable buildings, different regions, currency and traditional dress;
• One Ethiopian migrant said 12 other Ethiopians were granted asylum using the blueprint of his asylum claim.
Eritrea has been called ‘the North Korea of Africa’ because of its indefinite conscription into the army, which the UN says amounts to forced labour or even slavery, as well as its torturous detention system and systemic repression of basic freedoms.
But while parts of Ethiopia have suffered conflicts, poverty and severe droughts, it is Africa’s fastest growing economy and itself hosts more than 823,000 refugees, many of whom are from Eritrea.
The UK government says that refugees allowed to stay in the UK must be unable to live safely in any part of their country without fear of persecution.
Abraha, who lives with his family in a Southwark council flat, proudly flaunts his Ethiopian identity to his 16,000 TikTok followers while admitting to claiming asylum in Britain as an Eritrean.
Posting as ‘Miki Abrere,’ he hosts weekly TikTok sessions teaching Ethiopians how to file fake asylum claims. For our investigation, translated hours of footage from Abrahah spoken in Amharic, a language spoken in Ethiopia but rarely by Eritreans.
In one call, Abraha tells one Ethiopian who feared she may have made a mistake in her screening interview which could reveal she is not Eritrean to ‘say you were nervous and unprepared and you were misquoted’. He also tells viewers to ‘attend events organised by Eritreans’ and ‘document your activities with Eritreans’ to help their asylum claims.
In another blatant example of deception, Abraha explains in one video how to pretend to be under-18 to help speed up an asylum claim.
He said: ‘The best thing to do is to let your hair grow and put the tip of your longer hair down to the front side. Some guys with a baby face use this method.
‘Your acts also matter. If you don’t act like a child, you may be caught. Someone told me that after they were placed in a hotel as an underage migrant, when they went downstairs to get a meal or to the reception, they would put a blanket on their body and hotel staff treated them as a kid.’
In other live video calls on TikTok, the Mail found six other Ethiopians who admitted to making successful asylum claims as Eritreans.
From 2010 until March 2024, nearly 35,000 asylum claims were lodged where the applicant stated they are from Eritrea. This represents close to one per cent of the country’s population of around 3.6million.
Between 2018 and 2024, asylum was granted to 5,222 applicants to people claiming to be from Eritrea. That was more than the 4,882 figures for Syrians, despite Syria having a population of around 22.1million. Both countries have the highest success rates, with 99 per cent of applications granted.
Alp Mehmet, chairman of the Migration Watch UK campaign group, said: ‘It’s no surprise that this old ruse is still in wide use.
‘Make your way to the UK illegally, destroy anything that could identify you, make up a story that can’t be checked, and you’re home and dry. I dread to think how many in the backlog now being granted asylum or permission to stay have lied about who they are and where they’re from. We really have lost our senses.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We are fully committed to ensuring our asylum system is not open to abuse and protection is granted only to those who genuinely need it.
‘We are looking into these claims and will always seek to revoke refugee status where evidence shows it was granted under false pretences.’
Abraha did not respond to repeated requests for comment.