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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Mark Townsend Home Affairs Editor

Child asylum seekers detained as adults after UK Home Office ‘alters birth dates’

The Manston immigration centre has now been emptied after overcrowding and disease.
The Manston immigration centre has now been emptied after overcrowding and disease. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

The Home Office is routinely changing the dates of birth of unaccompanied child asylum seekers to classify them as adults, according to experts who say the practice is now happening on a “horrifying scale”.

As a result, many children are being wrongly sent to the notorious Home Office site at Manston in Kent, the experts warn, and detained in unsafe conditions for up to several weeks.

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