A Government plan to X-ray child asylum seekers to check their age could put them at risk of harm from radiation and cause distress, advisers have warned. The scientific advisory committee tasked with considering the Home Office reforms – to assess migrants who have crossed the Channel and are suspected of lying about their age – also told ministers and officials no checks would be able to predict how old someone is with “precision”.
Unveiling the proposals last year, then-home secretary Priti Patel said using biological tests would stop grown men “masquerading as children” on their asylum applications. The Home Office previously described this as a “significant” problem and warned incorrect assessments could also see children wrongly identified as adults and put them at “risk of harm”.
But some campaigners and medical professionals raised questions over whether using scientific methods, which could also include MRI scans, to examine the development of teeth and bones was ethical or reliable. In a report published on Tuesday, the Age Estimation Science Advisory Committee recommended existing checks – which rely on interviews with social workers – are still used, but could be “supported by biological age assessment”.
