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.

It's becoming a joke. The appropriate checks are not being carried out they could be anyone fgs

Claude I live a little further north of France and we have plenty of people who choose to wear Islamic dress. I'm hardly suggesting that this place is paradise for refugees (far from it) but in any case we don't have shanty towns. Plenty of people against refugees but also plenty of us supporting where we can.

Like I said this is no land of milk & honey but I do wonder why people hang around Calais rather than head north where there are at least chances to try to get on with your life. It seems a much better bet to me. The UK really isn't all that.

(I realise the above is a massive oversimplification so please nobody waste time going off on one accusing me of middle class judging etc etc)

Guess the age of this unaccompanied child

It's a real shame because this was obviously totally mismanaged and will just play more into the hands of those who don't want any refugees at all allowed in.

I can tell a 9 year old from a 19 year old and I suggest 100% of us on here can too.

And where are the vulnerable girls?

Yes questions need to be asked WHY are people not staying on France? Why so desperate to come to UK??

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z3cgx#play

From 7:05

Well how old is he abs really how would you know beyond all dought?

A 17 yo from a 25yo isn't always as easy. I've worked with homeless people and it's not uncommon for people to look 20+ years older than they actually are. I think people are underestimating what not eating/drinking/sleeping, walking for months and stress can actually do to your body.

That's true bum but if we accepted children so those under 14 you would be generally sure they are children. No 14 year old looks 25.

Last year home office figures now released stated that 45% of those claiming to be under 18 were over 18.

Just on sky news now.

You can't blame them ffs who wouldn't lie. That's why we should be accepting those who are clearly children.

According to the charities involved they are trying to protect the younger children and the girls from having their photos taken because they are worried about how they will be used.
This thread justifies these actions.

That's why we should be accepting those who are clearly children.

I agree. If you obviously look like a child, you enter. If there is a question mark about your age, you do not enter. No fannying around.

Ironic that mn is full of threads about how we demonise teenage boys and then. .. high dudgeon because a desperate foreign teenager has the temerity to develop normally.

Tough shit for any 13/14 yos that happen to be early developers then!

I don't need to see any photos.

I would just like the stats of how many girls, from a camp that is over 95% male, we are actually taking.

Last year home office figures now released stated that 45% of those claiming to be under 18 were over 18.

How were these refugees assessed, if it's not possible to assess in this situation?

There were those who didn't want the Kindertransport programme for fear of letting in fifth columnists.

If there is a hidden cynical reason for this, as opposed to the explicit cynical reason that Europe wants a load of 'hard workers' who pay in more than they take out, not a bunch of kids, disabled people, and pregnant women..

That cynical reason would be to end the Dublin agreement, as the Government will have demonstrated how impossible it apparently is to work out who is an adult, and a variety of liberals have agreed with them.

Yawn exactly.

We can not demonise British teenagers but an older teenager (young adult) from another culture is clearly a terrorist rapist waiting to pounce.

I agree almond, the HO has flaunted these grown-up looking "children" at us, we should be thinking about why!

Anyway, don't you think the uk has basically done a deal with France to take some of the people from the camp? We have prioritised those who claim to be children and have links to the UK and the camp is now being dismantled. David Cameron pledged to take refugees straight from the camps in Turkey. I assume most of those will be women and children.

Seriously, listen to this from 10:20 - it might help to explain the situation.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z3cgx#play

As to those wondering why these minors didn't claim refuge in other countries - they were always heading to the UK to be reunited with family members.

To those who think all migrants are headed to the UK, this is very far from the truth as these charts show.

However, it seems to me that there is a huge amount of mistrust - many people simply don't believe what they're being told.

If you don't have time to listen to the R4 programme; in it they say that there is confusion around the pictures and it is likely that one is a photo of an interpreter who accompanied the children. It's disgusting that newspapers are allowed to print photographs of these vulnerable young people.

They also state that there are rigorous tests and checks and that these small number of teenagers are the first to have been cleared. They are also exasperated that vulnerable younger (Dubb's Amendment) children with no family links in the UK have not been 'processed' yet but that should not deny these teenagers their rights.

It really is not as simple as some folks are making out - This is just one part of a very complex situation and we have responsibilities, both legal and moral, to help these children.

No Bito that's unfair I think if the children looked like genuine children so clearly under 14 I think there might be a clamour to take more.

This has just fed people's fears that we have been taken for a ride.

Gobolin apparently after further initial probing of personal identity papers etc. But it's clearly not an exact science.

I still worry far more about the young girls and women left behind rather than older teenage men and adult males who could have moved to better accommodation offered in northern France.

Yes adolescent boys are much more likely to be unaccompanied asylum seekers than girls or young children. Here is why.Young children dont get that far. They get trafficked and taken and sold. They get raped and murdered. You can find videos on the net.Girls are less likely to be allowed to go that far and are more likely to be trafficked, raped, murdered, than boys.THose boys because of the way they look are at risk of allsorts, not least being trafficked into crime. They may even be ex child soldiers.Am really sorry we didnt pick the cutest most photogenic refugees but someone clearly thought this was about kids at risk and not you.How did you think toddlers were getting to Calais? Who did we think unaccompanied children were?Year 9/10/11 boys LOOK like adults. All the time. Even boys who have never done agricultural work.In many ways they are adults. Because by 12-13 they have seen and done things no adult will EVER have to do.14 young people have just come into a country to a rabid press and twitter declaring them a threat to national security. 14.FYI THis is how wide scale systematic abuse of girls in Rotherham, Keighley ect was allowed. 'They are not children look like grown up'.People fail to see the irony of this, those girls were ignored & allowed to be vulnerable prey, now false concern shown...Children do not stop being children at 10 when they stop looking like cute little things with big eyes.Children are more at risk 11+ because society will NOT treat them as children and the consequences outrage the public.At 15 I regularly went clubbing, to the pub and went to adult venues and I got in. I didnt even look like an adult when I was 25.We literally blame every single thing in this country on immigrants. It's a pathetic sort of laziness.A quick word about girls exploited through CSE. They often start looking very young. They age very quickly. Very.In front of your eyes, these girls go from looking like tiny little girls to hard faced women much older than they are.Because trauma does that. Seeing the worst of humanity does that.By the time they have been harmed they are almost unrecognisable as children and are more vulnerable because of it.

The above is unashamedly lifted from an experience social workers timeline on twitter, but it's accurate imo

city - I understand all of what you are saying. But that does not preclude checks being carried out.