Almost fifth of lone Albanian child refugees in Kent missing

[habibihabibi]

I read this headline today but don't understand how one let, alone 39 children slip through the net. Does anyone know how and what likely happens to them?
Presumably they come to the UK , are processed and placed in care so they can attend school .
Why isn't there press and police reporting about these missing kids ?

They abscond and are picked up by people that they know.

As above.
I would guess they know exactly what they're doing.
Years ago, when I was teaching, we would have adults claiming to be children placed in our classes. One 27 year old man, I remember particularly, in my class of fifteen year olds. Another pretender took up with one of my teenage girls, got her pregnant - they got a flat provided etc.
These are true examples, not right-wing propaganda.

Sounds sinister. Do you think very young kids end up in bad situations ?
I understand if it is 16 year olds slipping away but younger kids ?
Surely they don't get to go to school if they aren't registered.
Why don't we see missing kid reports about them.

Sometimes people pretend to be children when they are adults to be granted asylum

Sometimes they get trafficked, this is a known problem in Kent.

Sometimes they run away

Most of them are not children!

They said in the article several have since turned 18, they are not little children.

Most will be going to relatives or acquaintances which was always the plan (but they didn't tell the authorities this!)

They are often trafficked.

Then if this is the case why the hell are they allowed to be classified as children? Surely a 27yr cannot easily pass for a 16yr (as mentioned above). How is there not being more done to re-assess and verify the ages that some people are claiming to be?

A person is a legal minor until they turn 18. Plenty of asylum seeking children are claiming ages of approx 17.5 years. Any young children generally come in to the country with at least one parent and do not go missing.
The assessment of age can be complex and can be challenged.
There are financial reasons why age assessments and challenges may, or may not, be followed up.

A lot of them are trafficked - sex slavery market

What do you mean by asking why press aren’t reporting it? You said you read it in a headline.

The whole thing is a complete fuck up. Some adult men are posing as children because it is deems to be an abuse of their rights to do any tests on them.

However, I suspect there are many more genuine children who are being trafficked into the country and who are being exploited by criminal gangs.

People think that it’s cruel to govern and restrict immigration, legal or otherwise, but the current system seems to protect the criminals and ignore the victims.

Some of them will be adults pretending to be children. Some of then will be older teenagers who’ve pre-arranged to work for criminals.

And many, many, will be younger children who’ve been abducted by paedophiles or enslaved by drug gangs.

Read this article about a British 11 year old, then wonder where the 11 year olds fleeing war end up. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63759703

A sizeable number are not put in care, no. They are put in hotels, detention centres and processing centres with adults, which is against the government’s own policies.

It’s lovely to see the mumsnet hyperbole machine spin into action to tell you that actually they’re all grown men, and while I’m sure some lie about their age, there are a worrying amount of cases where under 18s have been told by home office staff to lie and pretend to be older or they won’t be able to access accommodation/will be stuck in a processing centre for months, or for young people to be interviewed without an interpreter and no way of knowing what the home office staff are asking them. Link at the bottom claims that roughly 75% of age disputed claims (ie home office assess them as adult) are actually found to be children.

“The Home Office is routinely changing the dates of birth of unaccompanied child asylum seekers to classify them as adults, according to experts who say the practice is now happening on a “horrifying scale”.”
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/27/child-asylum-seekers-detained-as-adults-after-uk-home-office-alters-birth-dates

The UK Home Office has said it will investigate allegations that children seeking asylum have been pressured to say they are adults - following our work three boys from Iran and Iraq. Home Secretary also challenged over wider age disputes system
mobile.twitter.com/refugeecouncil/status/1595374611918737408?s=20&t=DWgeO6h9dqGLajCwn1EXLQ

“"In one case the Home Office were about to put a bunch of vulnerable women and children in a hotel which was used by police for registered sex offenders until concerns were raised" one public health official told me”
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/diphtheria-migrants-cases-uk-outbreak-vaccine-infection-death-r8p2672sw

“the recent announcement that the Kent unit to house unaccompanied children was full meant that every new arrival claiming to be a child was being disputed. Speaking on Wednesday morning, Luke said he had just met with an underage new arrival, one of 42 similar cases taken on by his firm last week.

He said the youngster was immediately detained at an immigration removal centre near Gatwick airport and interviewed by officials over the phone. “That phone interview led to the Home Office saying: ‘We do not believe you are a child’ but without even seeing them. They would usually dispute someone’s age on the basis of appearance, demeanour and presentation but they are not even observing them,” he said.

Luke added that while the Home Office was quick to announce how many age assessment cases it disputed, it ignored how many decisions were subsequently overturned. “Saying there are all these people lying about their age is just not true,” he said. He estimates that at least 75 of every 100 contested cases are overturned in the child’s favour.”
medium.com/@bridgetlchapman/the-home-office-is-using-age-assessments-as-a-weapon-in-the-hostile-environment-87f0491a5fd6

Didn’t we manage to put some of them in a hotel also used for sex offenders the other week. Which is quite a fuck up even for the Home Office.

@RafaistheKingofClay Standard Home Office procedure at this point! They just huddle round and think “what would someone devoid of all common sense and humanity do?” then throw a dart at the ensuing list.

How do they assess their age?
I've heard you can do hand and teeth xrays to give an accurate and objective measurement, and also DNA tail measurements.

@Kendodd Dental age assessments are not accurate, and the British Dental Association does not support their use. Info here:

“The British Dental Association has welcomed reports the Home Office has reconsidered plans to introduce the use of dental X-rays to determine age in asylum cases.

The Association has been campaigning against the roll out of dental age checks for migrants, working closely with the Refugee Council, alongside other healthcare bodies and opposition health and home teams.

It is expected government amendments to the Nationality and Borders Bill will still give significant latitude to the Home Office to define in due course what constitutes ‘robust’ and ‘scientific methods’ of age assessment. On that basis the BDA will continue to seek amendments to the Bill to rule out radiographic tests.

The Association has vigorously opposed the use of dental X-rays to determine whether asylum seekers have reached the age of 18, stressing they are an inaccurate method for assessing age.

The BDA also believes that it is inappropriate and unethical to subject people to radiation when there is no health benefit for them.”

medium.com/@bridgetlchapman/the-home-office-is-using-age-assessments-as-a-weapon-in-the-hostile-environment-87f0491a5fd6

Hand/wrist x rays are also fallible, apparently due to different rates of development in different races, which I wouldn’t trust the home office to understand.

I’ve never heard of DNA tail measurements and google’s not bringing up anything useful (it brought up something about testing cow’s tail hair dna, I’m sure that’s not the right thing!) - is there any more detail about that?

The it’ll be perfectly fine to skip the health screening so we can move them out of manston was also picked with a dart.

Sex trafficking. That's a big risk too, a reason why/how genuinely young people might 'disappear'.

Do you know how they do assess their age?
And then how do they know if they got it right or wrong?

Just googled and it seems like basically the authorities just guess a persons age.

They basically have to give them to benefit of the doubt

We need a proper biological test. Just talking to someone to make an age assessment is bollocks, and everyone must realise its rubbish.