EXCLUSIVE: A foster carer has recounted her experience looking after an unaccompanied asylum seeker who turned out to be older than she thought.
Some adult asylum seekers are reportedly pretending to be children. (Image: Getty)
Some asylum seekers are pretending to be children so they can be placed into foster care, a carer has claimed. A report by the independent immigration inspector revealed that, last year, 56% of migrants who claimed to be children were eventually found to be adults, either through further assessments or after admitting it themselves. Inspectors also studied a sample of 100 case files, 38 of which had initially been assessed as an adult by the Home Office.
However, after further assessment by a local authority, this number went down to 22. An anonymous carer revealed to the Express her first-hand experience of this, finding out by chance that the young person she cared for was actually a grown man. The carer, based in Bedfordshire, took who she thought was a 16-year-old to the dentist, only for them to conclude based on his teeth that he must have been older.
Trying to get into foster care can be the easiest option. (Image: Getty)
She recounted: “When I took him to the dentist, the dentist pulled me aside and said, ‘He’s got all these widom teeth, and you don’t normally get them until [you’re older]’.”
The carer has looked after multiple unaccompanied young people over the last few years, and said their status as undocumented also leads to mistakes in paperwork.
As an agency worker, she gets sent through the details of the foster child after they’ve already gone through the Home Office and the agency.
However, when someone has no documentation such as a passport or birth certificate, it can create complications and mistakes can be made in the paperwork.
She explained: “I’ve been sent paperwork through and they’ve [the agency] said ‘we’ve got this young person’ … And it’s not until I’ve actually got to the bottom of the paperwork that … I’ve worked it out and they’re 24; they’re an adult.”
Once asylum-seeking children are in foster care, they may receive money taken from their carer’s weekly allowance, which the Bedfordshire carer suggested was enticing people to lie about their age.
The exact amount varies based on the fostering agency, the child’s age and needs, and the carer’s experience, but can range from £454 to £860, according to Fostering People, a portion of which is set aside for pocket money.
Currently, age assessments are based on the guesswork of immigration officials and social workers, but the Home Office and independent immigration inspector both noted how “challenging” this is.
Medical testing, such as looking at teeth or taking bone X-rays, could present a more reliable option, as the carer’s shocking story attests.
Robin Findlay, general secretary of the National Union of Professional Foster Carers, said the current age assessment system needs to be “massively shaken up.” He told the Express, “For the minors, a dental check would be ideal.”
The Government will now use AI to conduct age assessments. (Image: Getty)
However, medical tests tend to be slower and more costly, prompting the Government to take a different approach – one involving artificial intelligence (AI).
Facial Age Estimation, as it will be known, presents a much quicker and cheaper option to determine someone’s age than bone X-rays or MRI scans, and does not require a physical medical procedure or accompanying medical supervision.
The AI technology is already used by online retailers that sell age-restricted products, and is trained to indentify a person’s age by studying millions of faces.
The Government will begin trialling the technology before it’s rolled out in 2026, and an offer for providers of the AI technology will be launched in August.
Border Security and Asylum Minister Angela Eagle said the AI is “able to produce an age estimate with a known degree of accuracy for an individual whose age is unknown or disputed”.
She said in a statement on Monday: “We have concluded that the most cost-effective option to pursue is likely to be Facial Age Estimation, whereby AI technology – trained on millions of images where an individual’s age is verifiable – is able to produce an age estimate with a known degree of accuracy for an individual whose age is unknown or disputed.
“In a situation where those involved in the age assessment process are unsure whether an individual is aged over or under 18, or do not accept the age an individual is claiming to be, Facial Age Estimation offers a potentially rapid and simple means to test their judgements against the estimates produced by the technology.”
