The number of “child” migrants found to be lying about their age in Britian has more than tripled in just a year, official figures have revealed.
In the year to September 2021, some 1,118 migrants were found to have lied about being children — likely due to the fact that being a child, and especially a so-called unaccompanied minor, speeds up asylum applications and makes removal from the country harder — according to Home Office figures reported by The Telegraph.
The true figure is likely higher, as it has been policy not to even challenge migrants claiming to be children — that is, 17 or younger — unless they appear to be “at least 25 years old”.
Indeed, a previous scheme to import supposed migrant children directly from Calais, France was quietly wrapped up after photographs of what were supposed to be stringently-vetted arrivals showed the great majority had the appearance of being men who in some cases were not even particularly young.
“It is deeply disturbing that the asylum system is so open to abuse that adults claiming to be children can be given the benefit of the doubt and be placed among minors in both accommodation and schools,” commented Migration Watch UK chairman Alp Mehmet of the phenomenon.
“The risks to the safety of our children are obvious. It is high time the Government stopped pandering to the immigration industry and dealt with adult migrants as such and not as what they claim to be,” he added, likely in reference to the fact that some adult migrants have been placed in British schools with genuine children after lying about their age.
The Home Office, which under current leader Priti Patel MP has made many claims of imminent action to resolve long-running and actually worsening immigration issues, has said it will set up a National Age Assessment Board to try and resolve the issue, which could use DNA analysis and X-rays to verify migrants’ ages.
This is something countries even with notoriously soft immigration policies like Sweden have already been doing for years, but the notionally right-wing Conservative party had failed to implement such tests in Britain due to supposed ethical considerations.
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