New report exposes shocking number of migrants who pretend to be children

Almost 2,000 asylum seekers who claimed to be children when they arrived in the UK over a 12 month period were deemed to be over 18, according to a report. The report authors said the latest available figures for the year to June 2024 show 4,727 claimed they were under 18 and of these 2,854 were assessed as children. This means 1,873 were found to be 18 or older, almost 40% of the total number of resolved age disputes.

In Britain, an age dispute arises when the Home Office doubts an asylum seeker's claim to be a child. The doubt can be due to a lack of documentary evidence. Some asylum seekers dispose of documents such as passports or birth certificates before arriving in Britain while others have lost them, they've been taken, destroyed or they never possessed them in the first place. When an age is disputed this would usually result in an examination of the person based on their appearance and demeanour.

In their report, the authors said children have a better chance of being given leave to stay in Britain and it is widely believed they will receive better treatment.

Citing "official data" and documents, they suggest asylum seekers who claim to be under 18 are given the benefit of the doubt when suspected of being that age or older.

In the year to June 2025, asylum seekers had nearly a 50% better chance (48.7%) of being approved if they were unaccompanied and claimed to be under 18, compared with those who admitted to being in the 18-24 age range, according to the report.

The authors wrote: "For the first time, the public now has some official data to back up their suspicions that the asylum system is being abused in respect of illegal migrants claiming to be under the age of 18."

The report was put together for GB News by Stand for Our Sovereignty and Facts4EU. It describes itself as a "high-impact, grassroots-led initiative" launched by Brexit researcher, Facts4EU and formed in the wake of Britain's Chagos Islands deal, Labour EU reset and "surrender" of UK fishing waters.

It claims to have been endorsed by former Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, former home secretary Suella Braverman, former prime minister Boris Johnson and Reform UK's Deputy Leader Richard Tice.

Their findings differ to an official report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration published in July.

Inspectors examined 100 cases where an initial age decision had been made by the Home Office in 2023 or 2024.

Among these were 38 individuals who had been assessed as an adult by the Home Office but later disputed their age with a local authority.

Robust age examinations, known as Merton-compliant assessments, are carried out by local authority social workers as part of their duty to support children under the Children Act.

The independent report said that as of January 2025, 29 of the 38 individuals had received a decision about their age from a local authority and 22 of them were found to be children.

Records showed the Home Office accepted the "new" age in 18 of the 22 cases, according to the report.

Making accurate assessments of the ages of young people is described in the report as "undoubtedly difficult". It recommended that the Home Office needed to involve interpreters, social workers and experts as much as possible in the process.

Home Office figures from June 2024 show that in 2023 more than 4,800 unaccompanied children sought asylum in the UK.

The Refugee Council said in its Lost Childhoods report that in the six months to last year's general election, the Home Office continued to incorrectly assess children arriving in Britain as adults based on their appearance and demeanour.

It said this led to their being placed in adult accommodation or detention, "resulting in a safeguarding failure on an alarming scale". Researchers also said the Home Office's handling of age disputes generates misleading statistics.

They explained that if 100 young people are wrongly assessed as adults when they arrive on UK shores but are later found to be children through local authority assessments, the data will record 200 disputes - 100 resolved as adults and 100 as children.

The authors added: "This creates a false impression that only 50% were children, when in fact all of them were."

According to the report, the Home Office doesn't publish clear statistics on how many youngsters it treats as adults after making a decision about their age at the border. It also fails to monitor what happens to them.

Among its recommendations, the charity calls for a limit on Home Office age determination and for local authorities to take the lead and for them to be alerted when someone who purports to be a child is treated as an adult.

The Home Office has been approached for comment.