More Checks For Asylum Children
Child asylum seekers could be forced to undergo dental X-ray checks, in plans to stop adults posing as under-18s, the Home Office has confirmed. Ministers recognise there is a “serious abuse” of the system handling the 3,000 lone children seeking asylum each year.
They back using the X-rays, which were banned in 1982, to verify the age of those claiming to be under 18. But critics say the proposals are a step towards treating youngsters as suspect immigrants, not children.
The consultation paper notes that while the overall asylum intake has fallen sharply, the number of unaccompanied children claiming asylum has stayed the same – roughly 3,000 a year for the past three years.
Care costs are more than £140m a year, supporting a “relatively stable” population of about 6,000 children at any one time. But in 2005 there were 2,425 asylum seekers whose claim to be children was doubted by immigration officers. This is a “serious level of abuse” in the system which threatens the government’s ability to protect children, it found.
The Home Office wants to make greater use of dental X-rays, a practice criticised by some children’s charities as traumatic for vulnerable children.
It has commissioned a review of recent research suggesting they are more effective than previously thought and, subject to its findings, aims to use them more when there is “reasonable doubt” about an age claim.
The paper adds: “An unreasonable refusal to undergo an X-ray examination should strongly inform the final decision on age, provided of course that other factors are given full consideration.” While the majority of lone child asylum seekers are not granted refugee status, most are allowed leave to remain until they are 18.
The government proposes restricting “limited leave”, particularly for those aged over 16, and to ensure attempts to extend leave are completed by a child’s 18th birthday. And it wants its current voluntary “assisted return” package to be better tailored towards a child’s specific needs, offering opportunities in their home country – rather than just being a fall back if efforts to stay in the UK fail.
The paper also says there is an “overwhelming” case to reform the system by which children are placed with the council in the area they arrive in – the vast majority of which currently are London boroughs. Instead it wants to transfer children to 50 or 60 “specialist authorities”, each handling about 100 children, across the UK which would develop special services to cope with the children’s needs.
Urging people to respond to the consultation, immigration minister Liam Byrne said the Home Office was committed to stopping abuse of the system, while offering refuge to those genuinely in fear of persecution. “The aim of the paper is to strike the right balance between the need to manage immigration effectively and the promotion of child welfare for those in the immigration process,” he said.
But the children’s commissioners for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said they hoped the proposals would be carefully scrutinised. “While [we] acknowledge the right of government to protect our borders from abuse of the immigration system, we feel that these proposals represent a significant shift to treating young people as suspect immigrants rather than children first and foremost,” they said.
And Anna Reisenberger, of the Refugee Council, said any reforms should put the child’s best interests first. “Proposals to take a child away from their foster family when they turn 16 show that, when it comes to immigration control, child welfare comes a poor second,” she said.