Hundreds of child refugees wrongly sent to adult detention centres by Home Office

Get the free Morning Headlines e mail for information from our reporters internationally

Sign up to our free Morning Headlines e mail

At least 1,300 child refugees who arrived within the UK alone have been wrongly recognized as adults, with almost 500 positioned in detention centres or in unsupervised adult lodging, in accordance to a new report launched right now.

Fourteen younger folks spent up to seven months in adult prisons after the Home Office wrongly assessed their ages between January 2022 and June 2023, the charities discovered.

Such therapy is linked to an elevated threat of suicidal ideas and an elevated probability of operating away from care, main many younger folks into homelessness and destitution. Children as younger as 14 had been amongst these judged to be adults.

The findings emerged from freedom of data requests made by the Refugee Council, Helen Bamber Foundation and Humans for Rights Network (HRN). The charities additionally warned that the Illegal Migration Act could lead on to a whole lot of kids being wrongly eliminated from the UK and sent to Rwanda, or different international locations, with out having been assessed by childcare professionals.

Maddie Harris, director of Humans for Rights Network, advised The Independent: “These children are terrified and continue to be profoundly affected by the experience of wrongful criminalisation. It’s a direct result of flawed Home Office decision-making at the point of arrival and a profoundly harmful policy of criminalising asylum seekers for the act of arrival in the UK.”

The findings in right now’s report additionally present that:

Charities worry these figures could also be far larger, with many extra kids who’ve arrived since June 2023 not receiving the proper stage of care and safety from native authorities, together with entry to schooling, healthcare and authorized illustration.

In the yr to June 2023 there have been 5,186 asylum functions for unaccompanied kids arriving within the UK, in accordance to authorities statistics.

Jamal*, a 16-year-old boy from Afghanistan, was age-assessed as 25 on arrival within the UK after a quick visible evaluation. “I felt sad and shocked – I’m 16 years old,” he stated. “I’ve been in the hotel [for] about two months. I live alone here, with adults. I don’t have money, I’m worried about the future and I don’t feel good at all.”

Helen, additionally 16, from Eritrea, had an identical expertise on arrival in Dover. He stated: “When I said my age they said to me ‘You are lying’… They took us to a private room and a lady asked me some different questions. She said ‘OK, I can guess your age is 22’. She said: ‘Because you arrive by boat, you must know what you are doing, therefore you are over 18.’” She has now had her age accepted and has been moved to protected native authority lodging.

The report notes that in lots of situations, kids should not supplied with an interpreter at interview, are laughed at or their bodily look is mocked, and ID playing cards confirming their age, together with the Afghan Taskira, should not accepted.

On 10 January the federal government introduced into drive the use of X-Rays and MRI scans to assess the age of kids in search of asylum, regardless of medical consultants warning the checks are unreliable and unethical. The checks embrace X-Rays of tooth and wrists, in addition to scans of knees and collarbones.

Enver Solomon, chief govt officer of the Refugee Council, described the scenario as an “alarming child protection failure” and referred to as on the federal government to take pressing motion. “Hidden from view, very vulnerable child refugees are being exposed to harm and abuse as a result of inaccurate Home Office decision making. Each case is a child who is being put at risk and whose welfare is being forgotten.”

Kamena Dorling, Director of Policy on the Helen Bamber Foundation, stated: “These new figures show that there continues to be something fundamentally wrong with Home Office decision-making at the border, and hundreds of children are suffering as a result.

“Recent legislation introduced by the government, including plans to x-ray children, will do nothing to solve this long-standing problem – it will simply cause further harm to those seeking protection in the UK. What we need is urgent change to the flawed policy of officials assessing age on sight.”

The report calls on the Home Office to only dispute a child’s claimed age in exceptional circumstances, and to routinely notify local authorities whenever a potential child has been determined by them to be an adult. It also calls for full statistics on age disputes to be published, showing the number of children who are taken into care from the adult asylum system. The Government currently refuses to disclose this data.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Age assessments can be challenging and there is no single method which can determine a person’s age with precision. Many individuals arriving in the UK who claim to be children often don’t have clear evidence like an original passport or identity document to back this up.

They added: “We are strengthening our age assessment process, including establishing the National Age Assessment Board and specifying scientific methods of age assessments. Measures under the Illegal Migration Act will ensure the swift removal of individuals who have been assessed as adults and who have no right to remain in the UK.”