Hundreds of highly vulnerable refugee children continue to be at risk of abuse, neglect and criminalisation as a result of a "deeply flawed" system which sees the Home Office routinely incorrectly deeming them to be adults, warn leading charities.

A new report Lost Childhoods: The consequences of flawed age assessments at the UK border’ from the Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium—a coalition of over 100 UK, and International organisations —revealed that in the first half of 2024 alone, 63 local authorities in England and Scotland received 603 referrals from various stakeholders who suspected young people were being wrongly placed in adult accommodation or detention due to inaccurate Home Office age assessments. In 493 cases where a decision was made on age, over half cases (262) were found to be children. [1]

Despite repeated warnings from experts regarding the previous Governments’ methods of age determination, children who have fled war and persecution to seek safety in the UK, are not receiving the support and protection they desperately need but left exposed to further harm in a safeguarding failure on an alarming scale.

The report claims some children are being left to fight for months, or years to be recognised as children because they were disbelieved about their age. Children as young as 14 are being housed in adult accommodation leaving them extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, with incidents of violence and sexual assault reported in hotels.

The report goes further to state that children wrongly assessed as adults, are also at risk of being wrongly convicted for crimes of illegal entry or facilitating illegal entry. Data shows between June 2022 and September 2024, 510 people arriving on ‘small boats’ were charged with ‘illegal arrival’, 26 cases where children wrongly treated as adults were charged with offences, with at least 16 children being wrongly held for periods of time in adult prisons leaving them at huge risk.

Many unaccompanied children have been through unimaginable trauma, having fled war, violence and persecution, become separated from their families and caregivers and undertaking perilous journeys alone in search of safety. Children disbelieved about their age have no support or safeguards available to them, are deprived of an education and failed by the system that should protect them.

[1] It was not possible to include the outcome of 110 of the referrals either because the assessment was ongoing or because the local authority itself did not record/provide that information – one local authority, for example, had 51 referrals in a 6 month period but could not say how many of those it had accepted to be children.

Amara* from East Africa is 17. She says:

"I was very stressed when I arrived. I came in a lorry, I had a scarf in my hair to protect me from the cold, maybe that made me look older.

For me it was very hard in the beginning. They treated me very badly. The lady said if you don’t accept this new age, get out, go outside!

I’d had a lot of stress, I’d been through a lot. They asked me about my age three hours after I arrived, I can’t even remember what I said, I was almost out of my mind. They asked me about my age, and how I got here, and all about how I came, but I needed rest, I couldn’t remember all the details they were asking me for.
For me it was very hard in the beginning. They treated me very badly. The lady said if you don’t accept this new age, get out, go outside! I said, ‘I don’t know anybody.’ I had nowhere to go. It was getting dark, and I needed some sleep.
They sent me outside London, five hours away, to a hotel in the countryside. I asked the hotel manager – please send me back, I don’t know anybody, and nobody can help me there. The manager sent me back to London, then I found a translator to speak my language. I found a solicitor and she helped me find a social worker.
After two months they accepted my real age. Now I can go to school and can check my health. Life is a bit easier than before."

Adil* who arrived from Afghanistan when he was 16, said:

"When I told them I was sixteen years old, they didn’t accept my age. They said no, you haven’t got any evidence. I was in a very critical situation; we had been through many problems. They said you have to show me your evidence. I said I hadn’t got anything, but I can get it if you give me some time. But they put me straight away into a hotel. I went there and spoke with the manager, I said the age which the Home Office has chosen for me is not mine, the place where I was living the people were all adults, that situation can put me in trouble.

When I told them I was sixteen years old, they didn’t accept my age. They said no, you haven’t got any evidence.

I was waiting for two months. After that they sent some social workers. There were many people in the same situation. When the social worker came, I spoke with them, I said it’s not my real age. In our country, it’s a war-afflicted country, it’s not the same as in the UK. We look different. It’s all about the situation, it doesn’t mean we are 24 or 25. They asked me many questions, then they accepted my age and put me with young people.
Many people are facing this and I want to avoid this happening to other young people."

The report suggests the visual assessment process at ports needs urgent reform and claims that the previous Government investment in ‘scientific’ assessments and the creation of the National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) NAAB will fail to address the root of the problem.

There is also a huge issue with transparency, where the Home Office does not publish clear statistics on what happens to young people it treats as adults following border decisions, which means they do not know whether their own policies and procedures are working.

The report was released to urge the new Government to take immediate action by taking heed of simple recommendations such as supporting local authorities in carrying out age assessments using their expertise as child protection professionals and improving the quality of age assessments at the border.

Enver Solomon, Chief Executive at the Refugee Council, said:

"Despite repeated warnings, children are being put in unsafe situations at serious risk of abuse and neglect because flawed decision making that routinely mistakes them for adults.

When dealing with children the highest level of safeguarding must apply. We urge the new Government to take immediate action to do better by vulnerable children it has a duty to protect.

Refugee children have fled war and persecution, often enduring perilous journeys alone, separated from their families. They are dealing with unimaginable trauma and stress. They need specialist support, to begin to process their experiences so that, with time, they can start to feel safe, integrated in their new community, and positive about their future in Britain.
But instead, inaccurate age assessments are leaving them highly vulnerable in adult accommodation, or at risk of criminalisation with cases of exploitation and abuse severely threatening their mental health.
When dealing with children the highest level of safeguarding must apply. We urge the new Government to take immediate action to do better by vulnerable children it has a duty to protect."

Kamena Dorling, Director of Policy at the Helen Bamber Foundation, said:

"Yet again, data from local authorities clearly shows that there is something fundamentally wrong with Home Office decision-making at the border, and hundreds of children are suffering as a result – left without support and forced to share rooms in adult accommodation and some even spending months in adult prisons.
It is unclear what further evidence is needed before action is taken. We need urgent change to the flawed policy of border officials assessing age based on appearance."

Maddie Harris, Director and Founder, Humans for Rights Network:

"For years now organisations have raised concerns regarding the inadequacy of the Home Office policy for determining the age of unaccompanied children who arrive in the UK.
We have repeatedly provided robust data obtained from local authorities that clearly demonstrates the failure of the Home Office to protect unaccompanied children, however HFRN continues to speak to hundreds of children who have been subjected to short for age determinations upon arrival, who have made significant disclosures of trauma and abuse, and spoken to children who are suicidal as a result of being placed in adult accommodations.
Children are being irreparably harmed by this policy and it must end."

Notes:

1. Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium members.
2. The Refugee Council is the nation’s refugee charity. We help people who have fled war and persecution to rebuild their lives, integrate into communities, and play their part in Britain. Born in the aftermath of World War II, our frontline services support refugees to find safety, get to know their neighbours, and enter education, training or work.
3. The Helen Bamber Foundation is a specialist clinical and human rights charity that works with survivors of trafficking, torture and other forms of extreme human cruelty. Our multidisciplinary and clinical team provides a bespoke Model of Integrated Care for survivors which includes medico-legal documentation of physical and psychological injuries; specialist therapeutic care; a medical advisory service; a countertrafficking programme; housing and welfare advice; legal protection advice; and community integration activities and services.
4. Human for Rights Network is a need led Human Rights organisation, established to facilitate safety & dignity for people forced to migrate, to advocate for a rights-based approach to the movement of people throughout Northern Europe, and to represent humans whose rights are violated. We are led and informed by the Migrants we work with and collaborate to address mistreatment and challenge systemic and structural racism & discrimination and the harmful impact of these.
5. *All names in the report and here have been changed to protect the children’s identities.
6. A new report ‘Lost Childhoods: The consequences of flawed age assessments at the UK border’ from the Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium – a coalition of over 100 organisations can be found here