Getty A migrant arrives in the UK from the Calais Jungle camp

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The situation appears to be getting worse with a “rising trend” of individuals presenting themselves as unaccompanied adults. A total of 789 cases that were described as “complex” age disputes were carried out in 2015, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services said, of which “around two-thirds” were deemed to be over the age of 18. Some head teachers have been forced to take “disciplinary measures” against those asylum seekers they believe to be adults, it has been claimed.

Getty Croydon's immigration centre, Lunar House

While some schools had “rejected children” whom they thought were over school age. Another report stated that some youths had been removed from foster homes because of “their behaviour towards female carers”, with social workers blaming “the gender assumptions” of the males. By posing as children migrants would be entitled to a school place and a foster family as well as support until they were 25. All of which would be denied to them were they adults.

Migrant 'children' from 'Jungle Camp' arrive in the UK Wed, October 19, 2016 Migrant 'children' from the 'Jungle Camp' in Calais arrive in the UK to be reunited with relatives. Play slideshow 1 of 26

Getty A migrant steps off a bus in Croydon after travelling from the Calais migrant camp

The abuse of the system is so great that the Home Office set up Operation Coldspell in 2013 to check the real ages and family backgrounds of hundreds of rejected claimants with the authorities in their home country. In the south London borough of Croydon, where asylum claims are processed, there are currently 433 child refugee claimants, just 11 of which are from Syria. A Croydon council committee report in January, seen by the Mail on Sunday, stated: “There also continues to be concerns around the age of some of this cohort as evidenced by their behaviours and attitudes which are resulting in schools following disciplinary processes.“

Getty A sign outside Lunar House, Croydon, directs migrants to interviews