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.

Wasonthelist according tothe paper his mother is dead.

Yesterday the second boy could easily be 17 or younger based on that single photo.

wasonthelist no idea, it just seems utterly ludicrous the way this is being handled.

Sorry not seeing it. At all.

Werkz - I understood that the children being brought to the UK now are those who have family members in the UK already, who already have some kind of claim or at least a connection. Hence the photos of families being reunited.

I wonder if we are all being played, and I wonder who selected these high profile "children"

If they wanted public support for welcoming refugees, all they needed was 1 or 2 bedraggled under-11s that would melt/break everyone's heart.

This way, people end up feeling like they are treated as fools.

And nobody likes to be a fool.

But...who orchestrated this particular section of "children" to come through first?

What I think could happen to my 13/14 year old daughter in a class with a 25 year old man, is potentially what has happened all over Germany and in Sweden. I don't think it would be appropriate for my child to be going swimming with a grown man, who hasn't been vetted in anyway. I just think it's completely inappropriate. Would I want my 13 year old son to be showering with a fully grown man after sports. No I wouldn't. If that's totally ok, then we should do away with all CRB checks, as it's not fair to be checking a fully grown man who wants to teach when fully grown men can be pupils.

Can't the people defending these men see how bad this situation will turn out for ACTUAL refugee children?

These men are taking places away from genuine kids. Also, they are turning the public's support away from the cause, which sucks because there are children that we need to help!

Foster carers don't want men in their 20s and may accidently turn away a genuine child/teenager because of this issue.

We cannot allow it to happen!

Can't the people defending these men see how bad this situation will turn out for ACTUAL refugee children?

Either they can't or they are so much enjoying their right on defence of grown men abusing an important international system that they don't care.

And they can't acknowledge either that by saying we don't believe they are "children" we don't mean send them back to be killed.

No one has said they don't deserve help and support. No one said they don't deserve to be kept safe and have a home.

Astley see I think that is my issue also.
We have crb checks in this country to make sure the adults who work with our children are safe to do so.

Yet some people think that it wouldn't matter if they are 20 years plus and in a class with 13 year olds because they aren't all rapists.

Well of course they aren't but neither are the vast majority of teachers. We still crb check them before they are allowed near our kids.

Otherwise if you think it is ok for grown men to be in class with your children then you won't be bothered if adult teachers aren't checked either.

God Astley you make a very strong point about adults working with children needing CRB checks and yet we are about to sleepwalk into a safeguarding issue of some of these children are indeed men. Why can't they actually do some medical checks? Expense I assume?

There have got to be better ways to help that don't encourage the fit, strong young men to make the journey to Calais and leave the very vulnerable behind.

The papers say today that Germany now has 17,000 claims for refugees to fast track their status, meaning they don't have to wait 2 years to bring all their families over.

The difficulty I have with it is that on an individual level, it's heartbreaking and you want to help. But where do we draw the line when there are millions of those individuals? We can't take the whole third world, and taking the fittest, strongest young men isn't going to help rebuild those countries any time soon.

I do worry about the culture clashes too, especially as a woman with a young daughter.

I think things like taking only the most vulnerable from camps in places like Jordan and saying no to anyone who has destroyed their paperwork and donating more money to charities to help in the field rather than bringing people here are perhaps better solutions?

Is the guy in the blue really one of the 'children' or is he someone else? Because that is bonkers. He looks about 40!

yeah, he is one of the kids, but probably looks older cos he has had a hard life and smokes, dont ya know

I work in a large secondary school and therefore see a lot of 11 - 16 year old boys. The one yesterday is picturing looks a lot like some of ours I must say, but the chap posted on the previous page might have got his birth date wrong. Which they often do I'm afraid, and through no fault of their own. In Turkey, for example, people's actual date of birth is often quite different to the one written on their documentation. That is because the registrar of births sometimes only visits the rural villages every 5 years, so a child aged 5 might be given the same date of birth as a child only just born. This was certainly the case 30 odd years ago - not sure about now, but I would imagine it did still happen 15 years ago for sure. Probably the same in many of the countries these young chaps come from.

The school these children end up in will have one hell of an under 15's rugby team, thats for sure.

I haven't looked at these pictures or read the whole thread. Having previously worked for the Australian department of immigration ( the case load was from the same region) with responsibility for 'family migration' including orphans I am confident that only around 20% of these 'children' will be under the age of 18. Under Australian law once a asylum seeker was made a permenant resident they could apply for family members to join them in australia. Almost without exception within 12 months the 'orphans' would make an application that their wife and her up to 8 children be allowed to travel to Australia . Without exception they would claim they had married a widow from their home villiage and had culturally adopted her children (culturally it would be very unusual for a young man to marry a widow). Almost without exception DNA testing would prove that he was the father of the children. As soon as paternity was proved the orphan would shrug his shoulders / apologise for lying and their families would be allowed to join them. This was completely routine. Australia have solved this problem by basically shutting their borders to boat people / people from the region. That is why many are heading for the UK now as countries like Australia and Sweeden toughen their stance.

I don't blame people for seeking a better life for themselves and their families however the only way to solve this crises and put at end to this farcical situation whereby men sometimes in their mid 30's are granted visas on the basis they are minors is to have a world wide refugee program whereby genuine refugees can be assured that their cases will be assessed in a timely and fair manner. As this stand people can 'queue' jump by trying to enter a country illegally leaving the most vulnerable in refugee camps in dangerous areas. That's where all the young children and girls are.

I also agree with the poster who said that PTSD usually makes people look younger, rather than older. Imo anyway...

so these ''children'' have family in the UK.

erm....WHERE have these UK families been all the time these ''children'' were in Calais?

why did none of them actually GO to Calais and get them or tell authorities they had family over there?

very caringfamililies aren't they?????????????

I think the authorities are taking us for fools, these men are obviously not children. UK will be the laughing stock of Europe.

What a total joke! all of the people here coming up with excuses about these so called 'children' need to go to flipping specsavers! There is only one individual on the pictures who seemingly fits the age profile (the one meeting his brother). The rest are quite clearly full grown men. One of whom looks like he is mid thirties! You are quite frankly deluded if you think otherwise! this is a national embarrassment. Actual vulnerable children in the camps are being missed because of these liars. Absolute nonsense to suggest that war has aged them, some of these men look like they were already adults when the war began! Flame me if you want, call me names even, but at least open your eyes to this stupidity.

Becky - family members can't just pop over to Calais and bring back their relatives

We haven't only taken 14 refugee children

Sorry to keep repeating this but right now, at this moment we have over 70,000 children in care in the UK who need homes. Over 4 are un accompanied minors from all over - eg Eastern Europe, those who have come from all over the world incl north africa.

It really annoys me to imply we have taken only 14 refugees in. Thats a blatant lie, we are caring for many more children than that and we are struggling.

Oh but wookie

We must not question a thing and let these men Walk amongst children in the school halls unchallenged or we are racists bigots accusing them all of being rapists

There is absolutely no middle ground between expecting them to be dealt with and put into age appropriate settings and being completely anti immigration condemning them all to death