Age assessments are one of the most unfair and destructive parts of the asylum system. The decision making is woeful and the process very traumatic. In one case,LA decided (for no reason) that a child was lying about his mother dying of thirst in front of him in the Sahara. /1 https://twitter.com/rachel_mantell/status/1297783314426863616

A judge ruled he was telling the truth. The child had to live in a hostel of vulnerable adults for a year and a half where he was harassed and abused. He should have been in a children’s home. In another case, a child was assessed to be an adult because he wore a ring which.../2

the LA decided was a wedding ring. It was plastic, green, and had been won at an Arcade nearby.

In another case, the LA called a child’s mother in rural Eritrea, putting her at risk. They lied to her saying her son had told them he had 4 siblings (he had told them 3). When.../3

the line cut out before she could respond, they said it was a deliberate attempt to avoid answering and she couldn’t be trusted to give reliable evidence about the child’s age. His own mother! /4

It is common for children to be assessed by LAs as over 25 years old and later accepted to be as young as 16. Happens all the time. /5

Racist/islamophobic tropes are deployed unabashed and it is very common for a child to be described as ‘angry’ and ‘calm’ in the same paragraph - both taken to indicate adulthood.

Obviously, the impact on the child is enormous. /6