Government vows to treat asylum seekers who refuse age assessments as adults

Expert report warned that scans cannot prove someone is over 18 and should be consensual

(REUTERS)

The government is violating recommendations from official advisers by vowing to treat asylum seekers as adults if they refuse controversial biological age assessments.

An expert report commissioned by the Home Office warned that there was “no method, biological or social worker-led, that can predict age with precision” or prove whether someone is under or over 18.

It said asylum seekers must give “informed consent” to any biological tests like X-rays or MRI scans, and face “no automatic assumptions or consequences” from refusing them, adding: “There may be many reasons why an unaccompanied child asylum seeker may choose not to give consent for biological age assessment that is not linked to concealment of chronological age”.