The Home Office’s policy of judging the age of unaccompanied children seeking asylum based on their appearance has been ruled unlawful by the High Court.
The judgment comes following a case involving a 16 year old unaccompanied Sudanese boy who immigration officials had wrongly judged to be an adult when he arrived in the UK and claimed asylum in 2014.
At the moment, the Home Office allows officials to treat someone claiming to be a child as an adult if they believe they appear to be ‘significantly over the age of 18’.
The Refugee Council has long called for this policy to be changed as it puts children’s safety at risk when immigration officials get it wrong as children are left without the specialist support and protection they need. Continue reading “Home Office policy on age assessment ‘unlawful’”