Record 1,300 migrants are caught pretending to be children this year as young adult men pose as teen boys to abuse asylum system
Daily MailMore than 1,300 asylum seekers were caught pretending to be children in the first half of the year - a record high. Murderer Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai claimed to be a 14-year-old orphan when he was actually 18 Parsons Green terrorist Ahmed Hassan posed as a 16-year-old before setting off a bomb on a Tube train in west London in 2017, injuring 23 people The figures for 2024, obtained by The Sun, included 283 people from Afghanistan, 282 from Sudan, 236 from Vietnam and 140 from Eritrea. A Home Office probe in 2018 found an adult asylum seeker spent six weeks as a Year 11 pupil at Stoke High School in Ipswich. The issue of immigration is continuing to dominate the Conservative leadership race, with Robert Jenrick setting out plans to slash foreign aid for countries that don't take back failed asylum seekers from Britain.
History of this topic
Asylum seeker declared a child by UK judges... despite a previous finding that he was 23 with a receding hairline and thick facial hair
Daily Mail
Government to use age checks on child asylum seekers despite warnings they don’t work
The Independent
‘You must help them’: Lone asylum-seeking children reveal trauma of Manston centre
The IndependentDiscover Related
Woman admits dressing as 13 different people to fraudulently complete citizenship test
The Independent