Internal data shows that the Home Office misclassified over 1,300 immigrant minors as adults after they arrived in the UK.
Due to errors in the method used to calculate the arrival age, the migrants were detained or housed in unsupervised adult facilities between January 2022 and June 2023.
In response to freedom of information requests, 69 councils said they received 1,004 referrals of young people who had been sent to adult accommodation or detention between January and June 2023.
Of these referrals, 847 instances had age-based choices made, and it was discovered that 57 per cent of the cases involved minors.
This indicates that in just six months, at least 485 children were put in grave danger while living with adults, according to the study.
According to a joint analysis by the Humans for Rights Network, the Refugee Council, and the Helen Bamber Foundation, the government’s recent efforts to tighten the asylum system have left vulnerable youth outside of welfare and child protection programmes.
They further assert that hundreds of children may be unjustly taken from the UK and transferred to Rwanda as a result of the Illegal Migration Act, which Rishi Sunak’s government is working to enact.
The report stated that many may also be sent to countries where they may be at serious risk without ever having interacted with child protection professionals or a chance to challenge the Home Office’s decision.
The findings are built on data gathered by the Humans for Rights Network between January 2022 and June 2023, which recorded 832 safeguarding episodes when there were ‘strong reasons to believe’ that a minor was sharing accommodation with an unrelated adult.
Out of these cases, 406 minors have had their age recognised by local authorities; another 123 are in care while the results of their evaluation are awaited; and 136 are being represented by lawyers to establish their under-18 status.
According to the study, there are serious doubts regarding their safety and whereabouts since the Humans for Rights Network has not been able to get in touch with another 50 migrants.
The report added: ‘This shows that in 18 months over 1,300 children were wrongly assessed to be adults by the Home Office.
‘These figures are likely to be an underestimate because not all local authorities collect this data and not all children are being referred to children’s services.’
The report described the Home Office’s approach to assessment as flawed, with officials using a short visual assessment, which can include judgments based on ‘demeanour’, shortly after refugees arrive in the UK.
Human rights network: how are we doing with respect to ours?
We don’t count. We need someone to save us from this madness and from those who think they know better or this will just continue.
What about those adults masquerading as children and attending school? And how many thousands were put in children’s accommodation because they claimed to be fourteen or so years old when they were 24 or so years old, and our idiot civil servants fell for it because they wouldn’t use scientific methods available in case they upset someone?
Why should those who do not legally belong in the UK be the burden of the British taxpayer?
Our Home Office is incompetent when they can make these mistakes so easily.
Because of the current state of Britain, those who were born here are without rights.
With its meddling in the internal affairs of other nations, the UK appears to be led by a group of individuals who have no concept of what it means to be a ruling nation. This is putting the country further into chaos and might perhaps lead to another war. Too many men and women in the UK have been sacrificed to the caprices of politicians; perhaps we should adopt the neutrality of Switzerland.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 