One in five migrants arriving in Britain on a small boat claim to be a child, Labour minister reveals - as more than 25,000 have now crossed the Channel this year
One in five people arriving by small boat claims to be a child, the immigration minister revealed yesterday.
One in five people arriving by small boat claims to be a child, the immigration minister revealed yesterday.
Dame Angela Eagle confirmed 20 per cent of current arrivals claim to be underage – some falsely – in a bid to get a better deal.
There is an issue about identifying correctly those who are children, she told Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
About 20 per cent of the people that come across in boats at the moment are claiming theyre children. Not all of them are.
And so clearly the signal has gone out that if you claim youre a child, then youre going to get a better deal.
Dame Angela Eagle confirmed 20 per cent of current arrivals claim to be underage – some falsely – in a bid to get a better deal
A drone view of an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants maks its way towards the English Channel on August 6, 2024
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, on September 16
There are safeguarding issues one way or the other, if you let adults in the childrens system, or children in the adults system, that weve got to try to sort out.
Earlier this year the previous Conservative government was poised to introduce scientific age assessments of migrants who claim to be children.
Legal changes allow officials to use X-rays and other types of medical scans to help determine a persons true age.
It remains unclear whether Labour will continue introducing the new tests.
Some professional bodies representing doctors and dentists have indicated they will refuse to take part, claiming the tests are a breach of childrens rights.
It follows a series of scandals in which asylum seekers claimed to be minors and even started attending British schools when, in reality, they were adults.
The oldest asylum seeker yet discovered pretending to be a child was actually found to be 41.
Migrants who claim to be under 18 receive better housing and support, a more sympathetic hearing in their asylum claim and are less likely to be detained.
Dame Angela also accused Right-wing politicians of using talking about immigration in a way which encouraged overt racism.
She said the Right of the Conservative Party got more and more obsessed with what Reform was doing that was very toxic indeed … creating a space for overt racism on our streets.
She added: Talking about asylum seekers in the way that some government ministers did … gave at least a yellow flashing light to people that wanted to indulge in a discourse about people whose skin wasnt the colour that they wanted it to be.
And I think creating that kind of toxic discourse around asylum is a real conflict.
It came as the number of small boat migrants to have arrived since the start of the year topped 25,000.
Home Office figures showed 717 people made the journey on Sunday, taking the running tally to 25,052.
