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.

Giles

scatterolight

I sincerely hope you're being sarcastic.

either that or you need to give yourself a wobble

There is a bit that confuses me about all this..
I heard yesterday the so called children are joining their "families" who are already in the UK.

How did those families get into the UK?

Did they seek asylum as soon as they set foot in Europe? If so why didn't their children come with them?
Or did they get themselves smuggled into the UK before asking for asylum? If so are they really seeking safety from conflict or looking for the best option . ie; economic opportunity?

Oh as to the people, looking at their faces... most look like they have been shaving for ten years or more.

Syria wasn't always a waste land, it's quite possible that many Syrians who are now seeking asylum have families who moved her legitimately (not as refugees) prior to things getting this bad as professionals.

From BBC

"On Wednesday, the Home Office also tried to allay fears by promising additional age checks, such as undergoing further interviews about their background and taking their finger prints to cross check with other records which may contain their age details. Their relatives in the UK may also be interviewed to assess their age."

So the Home Office, which has a wonderful foolproof system in place already, is going to do more - why? I thought they were foolproof and perfect?

Wookiecookies

I wasn't questioning your right or ability to question their ages - my point was that as ordinary folk, it's very hard to get reliable information from anyone. I wouldn't trust the Home Office OR The Daily Heil to sit the right way round on a lavatory seat.

I am shocked that Kewcucumber does not understand why women and girls are so often prioritised in aid and refugee situations.

The birth rate among Syrian refugee women and girls has almost doubled. There are 16,000 pregnant refugees in Jordan alone.

The prioritisation of men in Europe's shambolic response to the refugee crisis is a humanitarian disaster. We should not be following suit by prioritising males any more than the bare minimum we already will be doing under the Dublin agreement, otherwise we exacerbate the vulnerability of the refugee women in Jordan, Turkey etc.

So the Home Office, which has a wonderful foolproof system in place already, is going to do more - why? I thought they were foolproof and perfect?

To keep people happy?

if they can't look at teeth what else "can't " they do and just how are they ensuring that the people they are placed with are in fact family?

Exactly

And while I'd hope most of us would want to help genuine refugees - especially vulnerable women and children - it honestly baffles me that some either can't or won't acknowledge that a proportion are simply economic migrants, who lie in the hope of shoving their way to the front

"Some of the comments are ridiculous! 'I haven't seen the photos but... 18 year olds are weedy' You obviously haven't seen our school's 1st XV then! "

The poster was responding to the claims that hardship etc. would have prematurely aged the boys and made them look 25 or 30 (!).

As she sayscorrectlywhen war/poverty/malnutrition are bad enough to be having an effect on people's appearance, the effect on adolescents is to slow down development, not accelerate it.

As I said before, my experience of poor populations in developing countries is that mid- to late-teens boys look younger and smaller than in our own societies. They do not look like hulking men, and they definitely do not look like hulking men with a few crow's feet etc.

People do age faster when they work outside and have physically hard lives, but we are talking about from the adulthood onwards!

Really? These people are fleeing from wholesale destruction o their country by their own government and you're fussing about whether they are the right age?

I am ashamed of this country at the moment. I work with a couple of adult Syrian refugees. I hear what the conditions were like, the family members who have died, been shot, conscripted, died of lack of health care we take for granted.

We are a rich country. We should be proud that people see us as a safe haven, where citizens are not bombed or terrorised by their own government, and most people are housed, fed, medically cared for, with meaningful work, and education for our children.

People should be ashamed of themselves in being manipulated by nasty speculation about the age of these refugees.

Wow Saira khan is shaking with passion and anger on loose women - saying we need to wake up and stop this maddness

We can accept all of that and be proud and let every single person currently in Calais in, and then tomorrow the same amount of people would turn up.

It is very dehumanising to treat migrants as pathetic and hapless children, whom only the UK can patronise save.

No way on earth are some of them aged 16 or under!!! We have no idea who these people are and I find it frightening. Why yet again are we seeing young, fit healthy men coming here where are all the women, children and babies.

Evidence has shown that X-rays and dental checks are not accurate and can only give a range which is unhelpful is the range is say, 15 to 20 years old.

Emerald so your confident the vulnerable children we have just recused are from Syria?

Its extremely irresponsible to allow men into the uk posing as children, you should realize that.

Its also morally repugnant to decide to bring over the most vulnerable children with relatives here - and choose big strong boys who look so strong and developed they look like adult men and in fact are adult men whilst leaving actual children who without doubt are children in camp

Really? These people are fleeing from wholesale destruction o their country by their own government and you're fussing about whether they are the right age?

It's not that simple is it? This is in the context of the impending closure of the Calais camp, not the more general situation.

In that context, plenty of people wish us to help the unaccompanied minors from that camp, especially if they have family here.

It's not unreasonable to expect them to actually be minors.

As for the wider context, this country cannot remain a tolerant safe haven for people from war-torn places if we accept everyone who wishes to come here - it's sad but true; or do you think we should just welcome everyone?

and then tomorrow the same amount of people would turn up

yes because the EU has no external borders and inside it has decided it wants a free movement of people zone - creating a wonderful free for all - for anyone to exploit the horrors of Syria and Iraq.

Why yet again are we seeing young, fit healthy men coming here where are all the women, children and babies

According to the young man from Syria I work with, it's because there was/is conscription for all young men from the age of about 16 or so. THey are forced to join the Government's army, which wasn't always trying to defeat so-called Islamic STate. The Syrian army was an instrument of State terror, and conscripts were being called upon to fight against their own people.

In that situation, I think it's pretty reasonable to flee your country.

It's like Jewish South Africans I knew in the 1980s before majority rule, who had to leave SA, when there was conscription for all young men. Conscripts were drafted in to "police" the townships, shooting at, maiming and killing, black South Africans. As a people with an acute knowledge of STate terrorism and genocide in the Shoah, my friends could not contemplate being conscripted to do the same thing to their fellow citizens just because they were black.

If they are lying about their at what else are they lying about. They need to be assessed we cannot keep letting every body in, we simply do not have the resources and space to house everyone. This has made me so so angry and disgusted with the whole system and this is why people are getting fed up with it. Where are all the genuine asylum seekers??

Crashdoll according to gov.uk the margin of error is actually +/- 2 years in 95% of the population, with dental assessment of the under 20's being more accurate than in adults

Granted that's not perfect, but it's surely a darned sight better than just trusting what's claimed and finding silly reasons not to act such as "it's too intrusive"?

Emerald, the number of Syrian female and male refugees is approximately equal.

Where are all the genuine asylum seekers??

I think those of us who were born and raised in the affluent West, with state education, healthcare, no out of control army, the vote etc etc etc have no idea what drives people to leave their country of birth and enter another country illegally, hoping for compassion.

I'm going to have to hide this thread. This is not the Britain I love, which has been a safe haven for centuries for those fleeing from persecution in their own country.

I'm ashamed of some of the views expressed in this thread.

Well you clearly have no idea Emerald, despite that stats on refugees being widely available.

Really? These people are fleeing from wholesale destruction o their country by their own government and you're fussing about whether they are the right age?

Of course.

Because they coming here as unaccompanied minors with relatives already in the UK.

Checking that they are unaccompanied minors and refusing them entry from Calais if they are not is the right thing to do.

Unless you want to completely open our borders and let in everyone fleeing dangerous situations (thereby making the UK as unsafe as the places people flee from) then their entitlement to come must be accurately assessed.