Christian woman who fled Islamic persecution overturns asylum decision despite Home Office 'bias'

Speaking publicly for the first time, she told GB News how her colleagues had attempted to convert her to Islam.

Maria said that initially, they attempted to indoctrinate her through Islamic videos, but then their tactics escalated.

She found herself facing bogus fraud allegations at work, with her Muslim managers telling her that if she converted to Islam, then the issues would disappear.

Maria eventually gave in to the pressure, signing a conversion certificate, but she said that the demands increased, including expectations that her daughter would wear a hijab and that she would remove her Christian tattoos.

She told the People’s Channel how her daughter faced an abduction attempt during her return from school, with two men storming her school bus looking for her, only for the driver to force them away.

At this point, she turned to Britain for asylum, but her claim was rejected. Maria claimed that her assessor, a woman in a hijab, appeared to doubt her testimony.

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The woman, who has been supported by the Christian Legal Centre, is now speaking for the first time since her successful appeal.

“They believed that my country is amazing, Islam is amazing in my country. And they said to me, your law in your country is amazing. Nothing happened to the Christians,” she told GB News.

At her appeal trial, her Islamic conversion certificate was received back from the Home Office, but the original had been lost and the Home Office had posted back a laminated photocopy.

Maria later discovered that this “tampered” document was reviewed by the Home Office, where it was determined to be unreliable.

An appeal judge later described the process surrounding the laminated document as “curious”.

Despite all of her testimony, Maria’s claim was rejected.

The Christian mother said that she and her family were facing the “death penalty” from the Home Office after this rejection.

But a dramatic legal reversal allowed her and her family to remain safely in the UK.

Her legal team used evidence from Dr Martin Parsons, an expert in Christian persecution, and assessed the evidence, which challenged the Home Office’s stance.

Dr Parsons told GB News that Government lawyers had sought to refute the claim of forced conversion to Islam and attempted abduction, but, he said, “there was a very significant background of that in that particular country, as there is in a number of Islamic countries”.

He added that the “Muslim-named” assessor had “gone out of their way to hide the fact that that was an issue in this particular country, to the extent that they had ignored passages of the Home Office guidance for that country that referred to the issue of abduction of Christian women and girls”.

Dr Parsons found the assessor had instead referred to other sources, where they had copied and pasted sections “that solely presented a very positive image, pasted them together as though they were one section of continuous prose.

“But actually they had cut out the intervening negative comments about the persecution of Christians in that country.”

At the successful appeal, the lawyer said all of her claims were “reasonably likely”.

Michael Phillips, from the Christian Legal Centre, said: “I always remember the day when I received the judgment on an email, and I had the pleasure to ring her up and say, you never guess what, but you’re going to be staying in this country.
“You’re here, you’re safe. You’re going to be here forever.”

Maria told GB News: “My family were overjoyed to receive justice after years of struggle and trauma. We do not want this to happen to anyone else.

“Life is still hard, but we are safe. We believe it is crucial for other genuine Christians fleeing Islamic persecution to receive the support and protection they need.”

She added: “We call for an investigation/inquiry into how the Home Office is handling asylum claims for those fleeing Islamic persecution and forced conversion.”

Maria’s testimony comes after GB News revealed earlier this year that a Home Office Islamic Network was lobbying to “influence policymakers”.

The network was accused of promoting religious propaganda that could affect asylum decisions.

A Home Office whistleblower told GB News that the network had produced “pro-Hijab propaganda which it sent to asylum seeker decision makers in the Home Office, and explicitly states it aims to influence policy to support their religious goals”.

A Home Office spokesman said: “The UK has a proud history of welcoming those who are genuinely fleeing religious persecution and all asylum applications are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with the Immigration Rules.”

It is longstanding Government policy not to comment on individual asylum cases.