MIGRANT children arriving into the UK could be treated as adults if they refuse undergo scientific age assessment, according to a new amendment to the Illegal Migration Bill.
The Home Secretary has announced a number of amendments to the bill as she looks to make it harder for domestic and international courts to block deportations of asylum seekers.
One amendment states that so-called “age-disputed” people will be required to undergo scientific age assessment to determine their real age. If they refuse, they will then be treated as adults regardless of the uncertainty.
Suella Braverman said the changes she was proposing to her controversial legislation, which is designed to discourage small boats of migrants from crossing the English Channel, would help prevent “last-minute, bogus claims”.
The amendments laid on Friday are being seen as an attempt to appease a group of staunch Conservative backbenchers who want the bill to be insulated from interference by judges, including the European Court of Human Rights.
The Home Office said the amendments would “make clear” the UK’s domestic courts are restricted from hearing a legal challenge to deportation from someone deemed to have arrived unlawfully unless the person is deemed to be at risk of serious and irreversible harm.
Officials said that if the person arriving via an unauthorised route was not at risk of death, persecution, torture or degrading treatment by being deported, then any appeals would be heard remotely after the person had been removed from the UK.
Another proposed change will allow ministers to “exercise discretion in relation to interim measures issued by the European Court of Human Rights”.
According to Braverman’s department, there will be set principles under which ministers would be able to decide whether or not to comply with European judges.
Alongside pushing forward with the amendment, ministers are having “constructive discussions regarding reform to the Rule 39 process in Strasbourg”, the Home Office said.
A Rule 39 order was used to block the inaugural deportation flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Other amendments include giving immigration officers new powers to search for and seize electronic devices such as mobile phones from asylum seekers arriving into the UK via small boats.
A separate change contained a requirement for the government produce a report on existing and potentially new safe and legal routes into the country for migrants within six months of the bill becoming law.
An annual cap on people coming via such routes will also be agreed through Parliament.
Braverman said: “The British public are rightly fed up with people coming to the UK through dangerous small boat crossings, and myself and the Prime Minister are absolutely committed to stopping the boats once and for all.
“The changes I am announcing today will help secure our borders and make it easier for us to remove people by preventing them from making last-minute, bogus claims, while ensuring we strengthen our safe and legal routes.
“My focus remains on ensuring this landmark piece of legislation does what it is intended to do, and we now must work to pass it through Parliament as soon as possible so we can stop the boats.”
