One in five Albanian migrant men claims to be a child

AS MANY as 2,000 Albanian adult male migrants have claimed to be children to boost their chances of avoiding deportation.

Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, revealed one in five (20 per cent) of adult male migrants from the country arriving in Dover were, at times, claiming to be under 18.

Unaccompanied children are more likely to be granted asylum and less likely to be detained or removed if their claim is rejected. People-smugglers are suspected of exploiting legal loopholes to encourage young-looking migrants to destroy their documents and claim to be minors.

Around 10,000 Albanian men have arrived on small boats in 2022, accounting for a quarter of the record 40,000 migrants to have crossed the Channel so far this year.

Mr Jenrick said: “At times, up to 20 per cent of the adult males who arrive at Western Jet Foil [reception centre in Dover] claim to be under 18, when clearly the number is substantially less than that. We have already changed the law, to change the way in which those tests are administered, and if we need to make further legal changes, we will.”

The Home Office tightened the rules earlier this year, allowing officials to challenge migrants’ age if their appearance and demeanour strongly suggested they were 18 or older. The previous age threshold had been 25.

Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “The high number crossing the Channel illegally who claim to be children reflects the ease with which the asylum system can be gamed.”

Home Office data show there were 1,696 cases where the age of the child migrant was called into question in the year to September 2021. Of those, 1,118 – or 66 per cent – were found to be 18 or older.

It comes as Home Office officials are in a race against time to find “suitable” hotels and asylum accommodation as well as considering “bigger sites” for migrants amid fears that a further 10,000 could cross the Channel in the next six weeks before the New Year. Nearly 9,000 arrived in this period last year.

A source said: “Lots of people who have travelled through Europe to pick crops move north in November and December to the French beaches. While we have made progress with Manston [asylum processing centre], there is a real prospect that we get 10,000 more people by the end of the year.”

The numbers in Manston asylum centre, which takes migrants from Dover, fell to 1,200 yesterday, within its capacity of 1,600 and down from 4,100 10 days ago.