介绍： Child refugees: Gnashing of teeth
A very British tabloid fuss highlights a very European problem
From The Economist 20161029

Audio:

0:00



Minor on the move
THE “Jungle” camp in Calais—squalid, ramshackle and lawless—was no place for children. In May the British government agreed, rather reluctantly,...

介绍： Child refugees: Gnashing of teeth
A very British tabloid fuss highlights a very European problem
From The Economist 20161029

Audio:

0:00



Minor on the move
THE “Jungle” camp in Calais—squalid, ramshackle and lawless—was no place for children. In May the British government agreed, rather reluctantly, to take an unspecified number of minors from the camp to live in Britain. This week, as the Jungle was demolished (see article), a few hundred started to arrive under the scheme. But some British tabloids, not known for their excessive sympathy towards asylum-seekers, queried whether the new arrivals were under 18. The debate, conducted on the front pages of an excitable press, seems quintessentially British. Yet it hints at a broader European dilemma.

Over the past two years tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors have turned up in European cities. Last year 35,000 lone children sought refuge in Sweden. As of September there were 51,000 in Germany. Britain receives many fewer, but the numbers are growing: in the year to September 2015, 2,564 unaccompanied children applied for asylum there, 50% more than the year before.

No standardised procedure exists to work out the age of these youngsters. And their age can make a big difference to their fate. On arrival in Greece, some minors claim to be over 18 to avoid being put in detention centres. In Sweden, by contrast, being under 18 means that an asylum-seeker gets a place in a special home and, in some cases, better access to lawyers.


In Britain some MPs suggested that the Jungle children should be subjected to dental checks to determine their age (“Tell us the tooth,” roared the front page of the Sun). There was outrage at the uncharitable tone of the demand. Yet Britain is relatively unusual among European Union countries in not using dental X-rays as part of its age assessments (such tests are generally used as a last resort in those countries that do practise them). Instead, in Britain child refugees are interviewed by social workers, while the Home Office checks European records to see whether the children have been processed earlier in their journey across Europe and, if so, what age they gave at the time.

Dental checks are in fact of limited use. By the time people are in their late teens there is a “huge range” of development, says Judith Husband of the British Dental Association. Such tests therefore have a margin of error of about four years. The result should also be compared with a reference group of the same ethnicity or nationality, which European governments may lack. And it will differ if the subject is malnourished or has had chronic diseases.

Though it takes a miserly number of refugees compared with many European countries, Britain’s age-verification system is more rigorous than most, thinks Taimour Lay, an asylum lawyer. Of the 574 asylum-seekers who underwent age checks in Britain in the year to September 2015, 65% were found to be over 18, despite having claimed to be children. With fewer asylum applications than many neighbouring countries, Britain should at least have the resources to identify those who fib about their age.


Copyright © 2015-2016 Share2China.com | Powered by Flask and MongoDB