Migrants are falsely claiming to be victims of domestic abuse in order to stay in the country, a BBC investigation has discovered.
They are exploiting rules brought in by ministers to help genuine victims of abuse to secure permanent residence more quickly than through other routes, such as asylum.
Inadequate Home Office checks are allowing them to do so on the basis of little evidence, while their unsuspecting British partners have had their lives turned upside down by the false accusations, lawyers said.
The concerns about how these protections - known as the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession - are being exploited are the latest to be highlighted by a BBC investigation into the immigration system.
Today we reveal how some migrants, both male and female, are duping British partners into relationships and marriage and then making fake domestic abuse claims after moving to the UK.
Others are being encouraged to fabricate abuse allegations by legal advisers who advertise online.
A BBC undercover reporter met one adviser who encouraged him to make false allegations of domestic abuse.
The number of people claiming fast-track residency on the basis of domestic abuse has now reached more than 5,500 a year - a number which has risen by more than 50% in just three years.
In one case, a British mother who had left her male partner after reporting him for rape was subsequently accused by him of domestic abuse - a false allegation, she says, made so he could stay in the...
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