Over 50 illegal migrants aged 30 and above registered as children on UK arrival

Priti Patel vows to ‘stop at nothing’ to prevent false age claims, with new specialist unit to use ‘scientifically verifiable’ methods

A collection of illegal male migrants on a boat wearing life jackets
Younger-looking migrants are said to be encouraged to lie about their age, as unaccompanied children are more likely to be granted asylum Credit: Stuart Brock/LNP

More than 50 migrants aged over 30 have been registered as children on arrival in the UK in the past decade after falsely claiming to be under 18, Home Office figures show.

A total of 52 managed to slip through initial checks as children, before subsequently being found to be aged 30-years-old or more, according to the data obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) laws.

The figures also showed the number of adult migrants falsely claiming to be children hit 1,500 in 2021 – the highest figure since records began in 2006 and more than four times the 364 in the previous year.

The disclosure raises questions over the initial age checks being performed by immigration officials. Inspectors have revealed that the checks involve migrants being shown a piece of cardboard with 1 to 63 written on it and asked to point at a number to show how old they are.

Channel people-smugglers are suspected of exploiting legal loopholes to encourage young-looking migrants to destroy their documents. Unaccompanied children are more likely to be granted asylum and less likely to be detained or removed if their claim is rejected.

It comes as the Ministry of Defence on Thursday confirmed that 606 migrants had reached the UK on Wednesday, bringing the total for August to 4,765 – the second highest month on record. More than 21,000 have crossed the Channel in 2022, double the rate of last year.

So many are now crossing that Border Force has deployed a contracted armada of five ferry-style 92-passenger “crew transfer vessels” (CTVs) to the Channel so they can pick up nearly 500 migrants from the sea in one go without having to make repeat visits to shore. It reflects criticism that the Navy and Border Force have become a “super taxi service”.

Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has pledged to toughen up age checks after a series of troubling cases of adult asylum seekers ending up in schools alongside teenagers, raising serious safeguarding concerns.

The Parsons Green terrorist, Ahmed Hassan, posed as a 16-year-old to enter the UK before setting off a bomb on a Tube train in west London in 2017, injuring 23 people.

A court sketch of Ahmed Hassan
A court sketch of Ahmed Hassan, the Parsons Green bomber, who lied about his age to border officials Credit: Elizabeth Cook/PA

The FOI data shows that, between 2012 and 2020, an average of 355 migrants a year claimed to be children but were found to be adults after further age assessments. In 2021, nearly two thirds of resolved age disputes revealed the claimant to be an adult.

Alp Mehmet, chair of Migration Watch, said: “These are astonishing figures that reveal a seriously worrying situation. There is absolutely no excuse for placing people much nearer middle-age than childhood among vulnerable minors.”

“No individual, where doubts about age exist, should be allowed anywhere near vulnerable youngsters, in any setting. The safety of our children has to be paramount.”

Under previous rules, officials unsure of the age of a young migrant have had to treat them as children unless their physical appearance and demeanour “very strongly suggests that they are 25 years of age or over”.

Dental X-rays where necessary

Ms Patel earlier this year tightened the rules by requiring officials to exercise greater scrutiny over anyone who appears to be above 18 seeking to pose as a child.

The Home Secretary has pledged to “stop at nothing” to remove foreign criminals and illegal migrants, as she revealed that the Home Office had deported over 1,700 foreign offenders already this year, including 487 Albanians – double the number at the same point last year.

A specialist unit is also being set up to carry out expert assessments of would-be asylum seekers who claim to be under 18. New laws have also sanctioned the use of “scientifically verifiable” methods to check migrants’ ages which could include X-rays of their bones.

The move brings Britain into line with the US and some EU countries that use similar methods, including dental X-rays, to check migrants’ ages. They are expected to be used only on those suspected of lying about their age to enter Britain.

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