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Officials in Copenhagen used dental X-ray checks - which have been blocked in Britain because they are 'inhumane' - to rumble hundreds of adult migrants trying to clinch asylum by claiming they were children. Immigration officers referred 800 refugees who they suspected of lying about their ages to specialist scientists, who discovered that at least 600 were far older than they had told authorities.

HUMPHREY NEMAR/GETTY The Government will face fresh scrutiny over its decision to ban dental age tests for migrants

And the figure could be even higher because officials built in plenty of leeway and gave borderline cases the benefit of the doubt to make sure no genuine under-18s were denied their rights under international law. The revelations will heap yet more pressure on the Government over the issue of immigration, after it came under fire for refusing to carry out dental checks on unaccompanied minors brought over from Calais.

GETTY Tory MP David Davies has previously called for age checks to be carried out

GETTY Denmark has significantly toughened its migration policies

There was a public outcry after photographs of the child refugees arriving in Britain suggested that a number of them were significantly older than their given ages of 14-17 years old. Tory MP David Davies urged the Government to bring in dental checks to verify the ages of the migrants, saying the escalating scandal was seriously damaging public confidence in the asylum system. Critics have also pointed out that there are serious child safety issues raised by the possibility of grown men being classified as minors, because they will be placed in schools alongside vulnerable youngsters. But ministers stood firm, insisting that such tests were too "intrusive", meaning that instead each refugee will undergo a simple interview with a council official, who assesses their appearance and demeanour to confirm their age. The soft touch response of the UK Government has been ruthlessly exposed by Denmark's hard-nosed approach, with the country more than doubling the number of migrants subjected to age tests over the last year.

The Danish Immigration Service makes a major effort to expose those who are cheating Integration Minister Inger Støjberg

Integration Minister Inger Støjberg said the large number of cheats being caught showed voters could have confidence that politicians would take action to ensure Danish hospitality was not being abused. She told Jyllands-Posten: “The Danish Immigration Service makes a major effort to expose those who are cheating and is also working on how it can happen even faster." Danish ministers are accelerating referrals and experts at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Forensic Medicine, which carries out the scientific checks, expect to have performed around 1,000 dental tests by the end of this year. Some child refugee charities have claimed that the tests are not accurate enough and that most migrants coming from war-torn countries do not know their true ages, leading them to apply for asylum as children.

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