Asylum seekers have allegedly been purchasing medical certificates online to postpone Home Office interviews on their claims, the Mail has learned.
The tactic is reportedly being used to delay interviews for as long as six months, giving claimants additional time to develop their cases while continuing to work in the UK.
An internal Home Office memo seen by the Mail states: ‘We have noticed the same type of GP “sick notes” being added to different files.’
The memo says the certificates are being bought for £44 through a website called Home2Lab, ‘where no GP appointment is required, you can just provide a description of illness and it is approved on the same day’.
Officials dealing with asylum applications have been instructed to report any such certificates found in claim files.
A Home Office source told the Mail that the notes are being used by some claimants as ‘time-buying devices’.
Migrants clamber to board a taxi boat at the beach in Oye Plage near Calais in northern France last month
‘They [asylum seekers] get a sick note and submit it one day before or even on the day of their asylum interview, so the interview doesn’t go ahead and they face no penalty,’ the source said.
‘The interview won’t be rescheduled for several months, so they have more time to work on their story or develop evidence.’
The source said the practice was often seen among people whose work visas were nearing expiry and who had applied for asylum in order to remain in Britain.
Delaying the interview means, the source said, that ‘they can continue working’.
The insider also claimed that asylum applicants linked as members of the same family were ‘highly likely to submit a sick note’.
The source explained: ‘Because they’ve been “linked” their interviews will have been booked on the same day, so they cannot learn from the others’ interview.
‘So, one of them will provide a sick note and the other interview will go ahead. Then the “sick” ones gets a heads up on the interview questions, which will be personal and about their alleged relationship.’
There is no suggestion that Home2Lab knowingly issued medical certificates for these purposes.
The Home Office declined to respond to a Freedom of Information request seeking the number of asylum interviews postponed after claimants submitted sick notes.
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However, the source described the practice as ‘very common’, while acknowledging that the number of cases involving Home2Lab was unknown. Other websites also advertise online sick notes.
According to the source, some applicants submit sick notes ‘two or three times before finally turning up for the interview’.
They claimed one asylum seeker postponed an interview citing a ‘sore belly’, while another reportedly delayed hers for six months after claiming she had ‘burnt her foot’.
There is no suggestion that either of those cases involved Home2Lab.
Asylum seekers are buying sick notes such as this online from Home2Lab, allegedly to dodge Home Office interviews. A reporter from the Mail was able to obtain one in less than 24 hours
The Mail was able to obtain a sick note from Home2Lab less than 24 hours after submitting their ID, an online assessment form and a 30-second video in which they falsely claimed to have the flu.
The note, which diagnosed the reporter with a respiratory tract infection, was signed off by Dr Ahmed Said, who is a registered pharmacist, but not a registered GP.
That is despite Home2Lab stating on its website that its medical letters are signed off by a UK-registered GP.
In response, Home2Lab said ‘certificates may also be issued by other registered healthcare professionals, including pharmacists’. It accepted that the wording on its website ‘was inaccurate and has been corrected’.
Another Mail reporter requested a sick note for ‘stress and anxiety’, although Home2Lab recommended a face-to-face GP appointment instead and did not sign it off.
Home2Lab said this showed its ‘process includes genuine safeguards and is not an automatic or rubber-stamping exercise’.
A spokesman said the firm ‘does not issue certificates for Home Office or immigration purposes’.
He added: ‘Our website expressly states these exclusions and asks customers not to order for these purposes. We have identified three certificates that were subsequently presented to the Home Office.
‘In each case, the customer stated that the certificate was for work purposes, supplied employer details, and provided video assessment material consistent with a work-related purpose. We have no record of any customer disclosing an immigration purpose at the time of application.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘In line with our published policy, an asylum interview will never be delayed due to illness or a medical condition without sufficient medical evidence from a qualified professional.’