Hundreds of young asylum seekers are being wrongly classified as adults by the Home Office, according to new research based on information provided by local authorities.
Answers to freedom of information (FoI) requests showed that two-thirds of children – 867 out of 1,386 – who were treated as adults by the Home Office were later found to be children.
A report on the data from 70 local authorities said the number is likely to be an underestimate.
The authors of the report, the charities Helen Bamber Foundation, Humans for Rights Network and Asylum Aid, said not all councils responded to the FoI request.
They said some children wrongly classified as adults by the Home Office are never referred for a detailed age assessment to a social worker so do not have the opportunity to have their age corrected.
Some children as young as 14 have been forced to share rooms with unrelated adults, according to the report.
The findings have emerged in the week the Government will debate amendments to the illegal migration bill.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘Adults claiming to be children, or children being wrongly treated as adults present serious safeguarding risks, which is why we are launching the national age assessment board, introducing scientific measures, such as X-rays, as well tabling new amendments to the illegal migration bill to further strengthen the measures in place.’
