HOW CHECKS WORK
DESPITE concerns that adults pose as minors to get into the UK, officials do not carry out medical tests, subjecting them instead to a series of rigorous interviews.
Once a person claims asylum, initial interviews are conducted to gather information such as identity, medical conditions and age.
If a refugee does not have a birth certificate or travel documents, a Home Office screening officer must decide whether the person is a child based on ‘physical appearance and demeanour’.
Unless the refugee appears ‘significantly’ over 18, they should be ‘afforded the benefit of the doubt’.
Officials will continue to try to collect more information to check their age. If there are still doubts about a claim to be a child, the individual will be age-assessed by two local council social workers.
They consider family composition, schooling, experience of life, ability to interact with others and psychological development, alongside appearance and demeanour.
The Home Office has ruled out using medical tests, including dental checks, to assess the age of migrants.
Citing guidance by the Dental Medical Association, ministers have said tests of teeth are ‘unethical’.
Experts said age assessments using dental X-rays were unreliable, with it being possible to wrongly estimate age by two or three years.