To think only 3 of the 15 migrant children look under 18

[AmyMiller]

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3843900/amp/First-migrant-children-arrive-UK-Calais-French-prepare-raze-Jungle-camp-ground.html?client=safari

This is so ridiculous, many of them look around 25.

These 'children' look at least 25. There is one who looks younger in those pics. I want to laugh because this is so funny but to be honest, I feel frightened that they are going to be placed in our schools, possibly with my 15 year old daughter.

As foster carers who have been approached and agreed to care for the young people. We have to consider our own and other foster children, and placing the young person whose age is in question into our homes is very difficult, especially when the young person really does appear to be very many years older than stated. I do not know the answers but I do know it's a big problem for "children's" services and foster carers.

This has been going on for a long time. At my primary school in north London in the 90s we had a refugee join in about year 3, who was obviously much bigger and older than everyone else - he had a moustache! He ended up getting kicked out as he punched one of the girls in our class and it then transpired he was 19

A 19 year old passed himself off as 8?!

Home office assessments are done before the young people arrive, they will have been very thorough and only those with a direct link to families in the UK and documentation to prove it will be coming through. The local authority where the young person comes to live then does another assessment including an age assessment if deemed necessary, this assessment is undertaken by two social workers, a medic using an interpreter and and an appropriate adult. They are very thorough and usually take a whole day. They are supposed to be done within 28 days of entry but often there is a backlog.the decision report has to be done to a standard to be able to be challenged in court. The tests are rigorous in my opinion and can be traumatic for already traumatised children.

Again why is it racist to ask questions re age?

I certainly haven't said anything nasty about sending them back or wanting them killed in their own country etc

I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to anyone ever. And I certainly feel for anyone who's been through what all these refugees have.

I do however see an importance in what happens to then after to be age appropriate for all concerned.

Under any other circumstances, someone finding great out the person they married was much older than they said (remember that thread?)

Or young teen s at school hanging around with 24 year olds, and people would have some severe concerns regarding safety

The fact they are refugees shouldn't change the fact that they need age appropriate settings and medical care and should it be required, punishment fir crimes committed.

Dont care if a person is from Mars or a white British person.

Same thing stands

Aside from the fact that Asian/Middle Eastern kids can go through puberty a bit earlier, a lot of the boys look like smokers.

I know Indian boys who at 13 looked 18 because of smoking.

Giles - Its racist because you have been told over and over again that stringent assessments are carried out by the Home Office. And yet you (not just you obviously) keep saying 'yeah, but they look older.'

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think you have any medical training, nor have you met or spent any time with the refugees. All the assumptions on this thread are based on some photos in the Mail which we all know has an agenda and building on the stack of prejudices that have been allowed to fester on MN since Cologne at new year.

And that is racist I'm afraid.

But these things have happened and no one has been able to reveal the actual checks that have taken place.

My job depends on me checking age. I serve people from anywhere and everywhere. And 99 percent of the time I am shocked at how much younger than their age people look.

I have yet to come across anyone who looks significantly older than heir actual age

they look like 30 year old men because they smoke? this is getting ridiculous.

It's fir their benefit as much as anyone else's. There are many reasons why some Jobs are age restricted.

Ones using dangerous machinery fir starters.

They totally look like teenagers. Did you read the captions? In some of the images the person in the front of the picture is not the teenager. Eg. The man dressed in black who us obviously much older. The teenager in the picture is the 14 year old in a grey hoodie behind him.

These teens have had to put up with the most horrendous circumstances including war and bereavement. And this is what you have to say?

Shame on you all.

Giles - Its racist because you have been told over and over again that stringent assessments are carried out by the Home Office. And yet you (not just you obviously) keep saying 'yeah, but they look older

I think you need to have a look in the dictionary at what the word racist means tbh.

"You look older" is not, and never has been a racist statement. I think most people on here bandy the word racist about with the hope of stifling debate and to make people shut up when they don't agree with them but lack the basic debating skills needed to put their point of view across so out comes the racist or bigot and there you have it. Debate over.

but in reality they are only making Tits of themselves

Quite amal

The majority look like teens to me if I'm honest - teens who have lived a hard life. There's prob one who looks older.

amal - if it was just that they 'look' older, then it wouldn't be racist. It's all the assumptions that lie behind that statement (they're liars, they're sexual predators) that are racist. And it is totally racist to make assumptions about people based on how they look, particularly from stills in a well know right wing paper. I hate to say this but I think there would be a loss less disquiet if these boys were all blonde haired and blue eyed.

Pointing out racism on this thread has hardly shut down debate - it's been going on for 400+ posts with posters eagerly peering at photos and frothing at the nasty dark skinned men coming to assault our daughters. Just like the tens of other threads on here about refugees.

I realise I'm not going to change your views but have the honesty to own them for goodness' sake.

Well said, Linda.

And it is totally racist to make assumptions about people based on how they look
Again you need to learn the meaning of the word racist before using it.....

particularly from stills in a well know right wing paper I actually saw the pics on the Italian news, in the guardian, on the BBC all right wing media outlets 😮🤐

littleprincessara -you say the women in the camp are at risk of rape and forced prostitution. From whom are they at risk, the men in the camp? That doesn't exactly help their cause or your assertion that we're big mean racists for not wanting the men too.

They are racist assumptions Amalfi.

shins - no one controls who is in the camp. Most of the population of the camp are refugees but some of them are people traffickers and rapists. I would imagine they're not the children who are coming to live with their families in the UK though and they will disappear off into the murky underworld in Southern Europe once the camp has been demolished - there are plenty more refugees coming across.

Most of the population of the camp are refugees

Source.

Shins* I think this is a big concern. The fact is that women and children in the camps who are vulnerable to rape and sexual assault, are at risk from the very men/ boys in said camps who may be coming to the UK.

We have enough problems already with sexual assault from the indigenous(sp) male population witouth importing more from other countries.
I would really feel much more comfortable about the situation, if there wasn't such a gender imbalance in the intake.

Source is my friends who work in Calais and most of the media - most of the residents are from Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea.

Anyway, for those of you who want to help women and children affected by the crisis in Syria, Don't Hate Donate are still collecting reusable nappies for distribution in refugee camps. You can post them (clean please!) to:

DONT HATE DONATE
PO BOX 1000
SOUTHSEA
PO1 9QH

Thanks :)

They look like teens to me.

Also, considering what they have survived - war, possibly people smuggling, the Calais camp, is it perhaps not possible that you are seeing survival if the fittest? Perhaps a lot the smaller less strong teenagers either didn't make it out of Syria / Afghanistan, perished in the sea or weren't considered strong enough for the journey, in the same way the girls weren't.

Perhaps if they had called them teens instead of children, people wouldn't be quite so surprised. "Children" conjures up a different image regardless of the legal definition.

I worry about integration. Some of the recent terrorist attacks or attempts have been from people who were childhood refugees, Mohammad emwazi being the most extreme example. How are we going to make sure that these traumatised teens are able to develop normally, live full happy lives and be part of British society? If we don't do that, we let them down AND everyone else in our society.

Integration to me is the real issue, not immigration. If you come here and think you are better than the indigenous people because you cover up or don't drink alcohol and you isolate your kids inyour own community, you're part of the problem. If you don't like immigrants, judge people on their skin or clothes or culture, shout "go home paki" (as my third generation Indian/white mixed race ex got regularly), talk about us being "full", you're just as much part of the problem.

I would like to see what the government is doing to make sure these people will be looked after and integrated well and happily. If anyone has any links where that sort of thing has been published that would be great to read.