In this blog our Senior Caseworker, Laurie, reflects on the issue of incorrect age assessments; children being labelled as adults in the asylum system and the harms this has.
“It’s been almost two years since I started at Migrants Organise. Part of my job is about going to sites that are housing people seeking asylum – we visit four different asylum accommodation sites (within ‘hotels’) and run a weekly drop-in service at each.
It’s busy work, we’re meeting a lot of people who have just arrived in the UK, and many have arrived with nothing. A lot of the immediate need is what we call “section 95 support” ; it’s a type of asylum support, which is provided by the Home Office for people who are destitute. It’s generally just £9.95 per week, a tiny amount, so it doesn’t go very far.
When you’re in the asylum system a lot of your agency and choices are taken away, and you are left with very little. As caseworkers we make sure people are at least accessing the basic support they’re entitled to. But sometimes, the state doesn’t even allow this.
Adam* (name changed)
Adam is a young person from Eritrea. He spent months travelling to the UK, and arrived here by boat. He’s been alone since arriving here. He’s a really focused kid, and wants to concentrate on learning English.
I met him at a drop in session I facilitated at an asylum hotel site earlier this year. His situation stood out to me immediately. He was a child, alone and nobody had believed him about his age. I don’t know much about his journey to the UK, but I do know that he deserved support when arriving here.
I noticed he didn’t have proper clothing – he had one set of clothes I would see him wearing week to week. We see that a lot. People are arriving with very little, when we meet them lots of people don’t even have shoes. I organised some clothes and a phone for Adam, so that we could stay in touch and he could reach out to his family in his country of origin.
I realised quite quickly that Adam was a child, but his case is one of many where the Home Office and social services have decided that he’s not telling the truth. Adam was one of three people I did urgent referrals for age assessments for on the day we met – all of whom were very visibly children to my eye.
Social services met with him for an “age assessment”- a process which should follow certain rules and where they ask a series of questions to determine his age. In his case – as with many unaccompanied children we work with – they met with him very briefly and decided he was “clearly over the age of 21.”
Adam was in disbelief. He’s thinking “how can someone else decide how old I am?” It’s a form of gaslighting- someone is telling him that his experience of the world isn’t true.
Whilst I’m not a qualified social worker, I have a lot of experience in supporting adults, families, and unaccompanied children who are going through the asylum system. I also invested time in getting to know him, to build a relationship and to hear about his experiences and how he is handling separation from his family. He’s clearly still growing, he’s a tall boy but he’s clearly a child- he wears children’s clothing, and he behaves like a teenager who has experienced a lot of trauma and had to grow up very quickly.
Challenging the assessment
I advised Adam that he had the right to challenge this assessment and request another, more thorough assessment. I advised that he allow me to find him a solicitor to help with this, which he agreed to.
Adam’s solicitor helped him to challenge the assessment, I prepared a supporting letter, along with evidence from his GP.
Adam’s case was successful, and he was eventually placed with a foster family and remains under the care of children’s social services. He is much happier, has much more age-appropriate support, and is now attending school and making friends his own age. This is a huge relief for him and us at Migrants Organise.
Being seen as an adult, even though you’re a child, has a big impact on your rights, how you’re treated and what you can do. It changes your life.
Adam has had to grow up fast. He’s not had a chance to be a child really. And on top of that, he’s still facing all these ”professional” adults that don’t believe him in his asylum claim and he’s still having to do all of that unrepresented. Whilst we were able to find a solicitor to represent him in his age assessment challenge (because there’s still legal aid funding available for that), the legal aid crisis for immigration and asylum matters means it is virtually impossible for most people we support to find a solicitor. That includes children like Adam, who is still unrepresented despite our best efforts, and who clearly shouldn’t be in the position of having to represent himself. I don’t think that part has hit him yet because he’s still early on in his claim.
He’s now trying to get into different youth clubs – he really wants to spend more time with other teenagers which will be really good for him.
It is so important that Adam was believed, but often that isn’t enough because the support is so insufficient. Although Adam is in foster care lots of other children in a similar position remain in settings like asylum hotels. Sometimes someone – a support worker maybe – will drop in once a week, or take them out just once a week. It is completely insufficient and will lead to extremely traumatised kids.
Adam’s age assessment issue was picked up quickly and resolved, so he didn’t have to experience the full range of disappointment, anger and disbelief we see in so many other unaccompanied children who we meet later on down the line.
This disbelief continues throughout the asylum process, and follows people even when they do get status. It follows people around as they try to find work, or access welfare support. There are ripples of disbelief.
Even if they do get a correct assessment, nothing can be done to get those years back. They feel like they don’t trust those services – which affects them in the future.
It’s a hard process to witness- you have to witness a child grow up way too quickly, have their childhood stripped from them, and you feel powerless.
It shakes your humanity a bit- when you see the conditions people are told they have to live in. It impacts us all- it feels like such an injustice.
The work I do supporting kids like Adam is grounded in the need to reclaim collective dignity and power in the face of this disbelief. It’s essential to the fight for the long-term, structural change that we desperately need.
That’s why we are gathering our experiences as caseworkers, alongside the voices of our members to share our unreported realities.
It would mean a lot to us if you can read and share this blog with your friends and family. It’s vital we share our own stories from the grassroots.
For over 30 years, Migrants Organise has been at the forefront of building collective power with migrant and refugee communities.
Right now, we have serious work to do—from coordinating survival support for people seeking protection here in the UK to taking action against the billionaires profiting from miserable asylum accommodation.
Our frontline work depends on everyday acts of solidarity from people like you. Together we can build a movement for migrant justice.
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