UNHCR says children arriving in UK whose ages are disputed are likely to be denied services

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

Age disputes are having a “devastating impact” on unaccompanied and separated refugee or asylum seeker children arriving in the UK, the UN refugee agency has warned.

Evidence from an assessment conducted by the UNHCR found disputes over a refugee or asylum seeker’s age impeded and delayed access to services and environments that can assist integration.

Children whose ages are in dispute are liable to be placed in inappropriate accommodation together with adults, posing a risk to their safety, the report said, and are likely to be denied access to education.

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The mental and physical health of such children may deteriorate, they are at increased risk of absconding or being trafficked, and of being detained as an adult in an immigration removal centre, the report said.

“For many children, these initial mistakes take at least months, and often years, to correct,” the report said.

“In the meantime, children are exposed to harmful and protracted disputes, not only denied the support to which they are legally entitled, but also forced to challenge the very people charged to look after them.”

The assessment identified numerous cases where asylum seekers, initially judged to be adults, were later determined to be children as young as 15.

International best practice specifies that age assessment procedures should only be undertaken as a measure of last resort, when there are grounds for serious doubt about the person’s age and once informed consent has been obtained. Prior to the assessment, all age-disputed individuals should be given the benefit of the doubt and treated as a child unless this would be clearly unreasonable.

But the UNHCR report said significant changes in UK policy and practice were required to bring age-assessment processes in line with these principles.

The report was one of three commissioned by the European commission and published by the UNHCR on Wednesday. They make the case for taking steps to ensure unaccompanied or separated child refugees and asylum seekers arriving in the UK can more quickly recover from trauma.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it. We take our responsibilities towards unaccompanied children extremely seriously and, in the past 12 months, we gave protection to more than 7,000 children.

“Our approach to age-disputed cases strikes the sensitive balance between ensuring that children who claim asylum are supported while maintaining the integrity of the asylum system.

“When there is doubt about whether someone is an adult or a child, they will be referred to a local authority’s social services department for a careful, case law-compliant age assessment and they will be treated as a child until a decision on their age is made.”