Migrant with grey hair was 15 when he crossed Channel, tribunal rules

Telegraph

11 hours ago

An Afghan asylum seeker who arrived in the UK with grey hair was a child at the time, a judge has ruled.
An asylum court ruled that the migrant, who came to Britain via a small boat after three failed attempts, was 15 despite starting to go grey on the side of his head.
Authorities in the UK found that he was an adult when he arrived, saying he had an 'established jawline and lack of youthful glow'.
But an upper immigration tribunal has overturned that decision, ruling that the 'stress' of his journey from Afghanistan might have led him to go grey.
The asylum seeker, who has been given anonymity, had lodged an appeal at the Upper Tribunal following the decision by East Sussex County Council that he was 18 when he entered the UK in October 2022 and claimed asylum.
A tribunal judgment said: 'He claims to have left Afghanistan in or around August 2021. He travelled through various countries including Iran, Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and France.
'Following three unsuccessful attempts to enter the UK, he arrived here by small boat on Oct 10 2022.
'In an interview with the Home Office shortly after his arrival, he explained that he had come to the UK 'for a better future, for better opportunities', that he would 'return to my country after I complete my studies in the UK' and that he had come here 'to support my family financially'.'
Two weeks after arriving, he was placed with a foster carer by East Sussex County Council. A number of the council's social workers then conducted an age assessment because 'evidently there was some doubt as to whether he was as young as he claimed to be'.
The judgment said: 'The assessors took into account that the [migrant] had been described as having an appearance older than his claimed age of 16, specifically some grey hair earlier in the report described as 'flecks' on the sides of his head and an 'established jawline and lack of youthful glow'.
'Furthermore, [he] had not grown out of his clothes or shoes during his journey to the UK and, by his own account, he had reached his 'adult height' before leaving Afghanistan in August 2021. He also appeared to have facial hair before starting his journey to the UK.'
The assessors said his growth 'was not in keeping with that of other 16-year-old young men they had worked with'. They said his body was 'fully developed', he had 'established facial hair and body hair' as well as 'grey hairs which are in keeping with chronological ageing'.
At the judicial review Upper Tribunal Judge Matthew Hoffman, criticised the council for relying on physical appearance.
Judge Hoffman said: 'Physical appearance is a notoriously unreliable basis for determining a person's age, and this is not a case where it is asserted that the [Afghan man] looks so much older than his claimed age that this can be considered to be a reliable indicator.
'We also find that little weight can be attached to the fact ... that he has some grey hairs on the side of his head. It is not impossible for a teenager to have some grey hairs, but it is unusual. However, it does not seem to us to be much less unusual for a 19-year-old to have grey hairs than a 16-year-old.
'That is especially the case here, where there appears to have been some acknowledgement by the assessors that this may have been the result of the stress caused on his journey to the UK and that other possible explanations include vitamin deficiency and genetics.
'We also attach little weight to the evidence that he was shaving before he came to the UK. As the age assessment itself notes, 'the presence of facial hairs was not an uncommon feature of adolescent males from his ethnicity'.
Mother told him his age
Judge Hoffman said the tribunal could work out his age based on what his mother had told him when he was younger.
'We find that the [Afghan man] has been broadly consistent with his account that his mother told him his age when he was 14 years old so that he knew that he would need to fast during the next Ramadan when he would be 15,' Judge Hoffman said.
'We find it more likely than not that he is telling the truth when he claims that he was 15 years old when he arrived in the UK. After careful consideration, we find it more likely than not that he was born during Ramadan in 2006.'