Over 1,300 Child Asylum Seekers Incorrectly Assessed as Adults by UK Home Office

Flawed Age Assessments Expose Vulnerable Children to Abuse and Legal Consequences, Charities Report

Over 1,300 child asylum seekers were wrongly assessed as adults by the UK Home Office between January 2022 and June 2023, according to a joint report by the Refugee Council, the Helen Bamber Foundation and Humans for Rights Network.
Flawed age assessments led to these children being placed in unsupervised adult accommodation or detention, exposing them to significant risks of abuse and exploitation.
During this period, there were 832 reported 'safeguarding episodes' where a child was found to have been sharing accommodation with an unrelated adult, putting them at risk of abuse, assault and violence.
15 cases were identified where children wrongly assessed as adults were charged with immigration offences under the Nationality and Borders Act, resulting in them being held in inappropriate adult prisons.
The charities called for age determination to be limited to staff with the relevant training and only treat a migrant claiming to be a child as an adult in exceptional circumstances, where there was evidence they were in their late 20s or older.