Home Office age assessment scheme endangers child refugees and must be scrapped, NGOs say

A coalition of over 100 refugee support organizations is calling for the abolishment of the UK Home Office's national age assessment board (NAAB), established in March 2023. The groups claim the NAAB, which assesses the ages of young asylum seekers, is endangering children. Their report cites instances of deteriorating mental health, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts among children undergoing NAAB assessments, which are considered more traumatic than local authority assessments. Erroneous assessments can lead to children being placed in adult accommodations or prisons, as illustrated by a case where a 15-year-old was wrongly assessed as an adult and faced criminal charges. While the NAAB was created to address concerns about adults falsely claiming to be children, data shows many initially deemed adults are later confirmed as children. The report also highlights judicial criticism of the NAAB's assessment process as flawed and potentially influenced by political discourse.

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