UK to introduce X-ray age checks to expose adult asylum seekers posing as children

The UK government plans to introduce X-ray age checks to stop adults posing as children to fast-track their asylum applications. An Afghan asylum seeker, who claimed to be 14, had murdered a Royal Marine. (File/Reuters)

• Afghan national Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai exploiting loopholes was ‘very powerful illustration’ of need for change
• Home Office Minister Chris Philp says case illustrates why government is right to modify immigration system

DUBAI: The UK government plans to introduce X-ray age checks to stop adults posing as children in a bid to fast-track their asylum applications.
Following the gruesome murder of a prospective Royal Marine, who was killed by an Afghan asylum seeker who had claimed to be 14 on entry to Britain in 2019, the X-ray checks will be introduced quickly to identify adults who lie about how old they are.
The Telegraph reported on Tuesday that Home Office Minister Chris Philp said the way that Afghan national Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai exploited loopholes to enter the UK was a “very powerful illustration” of the need to reform age checks on migrants.
The process of introducing X-rays and other scientific age checks to stop adult migrants claiming to be children is to be done “quickly” by the government.
Abdulrahimzai alleged to be five years younger than his real age to enter the UK in 2019 before stabbing Thomas Roberts to death during a row over an e-scooter in Bournemouth, Dorset, last March.
Norwegian authorities had weeks earlier rejected the Afghan’s asylum application, before the UK granted him permission to stay in the country in December 2019.
He had alleged to be an unaccompanied child fleeing the Taliban, and Abdulrahimzai was housed with a female foster carer and awarded a place at a local secondary school.
Media reports said he had lied about his age and was actually an adult who had gunned down two fellow migrants in Serbia on his way to the UK.
Philp said on the BBC that the case highlighted why the government was right to modify the immigration system with tougher laws that will see migrants detained for entering the UK illegally and removed back to their home country or a third state, like Rwanda, where they can claim asylum.
The minister said: “He posed as 14, and together with immigration lawyers strung the process for years before it was discovered he was an adult.
“It demonstrates why we need more robust, tougher age assessment methods.
“What we need to introduce are scientific-age assessment methods used in other European countries, including X-rays of bones like the wrist.
“The immigration minister will be pretty quickly introducing those scientific physical-age assessment techniques.”