In some cases, the children say they were told that if they said they were over 18 they could leave the troubled asylum processing site at Manston in Kent more quickly. A recording said to be of a 16-year-old Eritrean boy speaking to a guard at Manston on October 29 about the pressure he says was put on him to say he was older has been released to the Guardian. The Refugee Council also provided information on three recent interviews its staff conducted with Kurdish boys from Iraq and Iran who made the same allegations. A fifth child made the same claim to the NGO Humans for Rights Network. The Home Office says the allegations, brought to them by the Guardian, are unfounded and that the Guardian has not provided “concrete evidence” to support the allegations. Cell phones were confiscated from people arriving in small boats, so the children who made these allegations did not have a chance to record initial conversations with officials. In the Manston recording, the Eritrean boy is heard speaking to a guard who questions him about his journey, his age and his arrival in the UK: “First they say: ‘you’re over 18’, I say I’m not . If you say you are under 18 you will be in trouble. They say three times: “if you say over 18, if you say 19 you will get out of this place”. And other friends say “we’re 15, 16”, they say “you’re lying”. One of the three Kurdish boys interviewed by Refugee Council staff said: “I was interviewed three times, they asked me my age all the time. I was told if you don’t accept that you are an adult, we are not going to do anything for you… My age is my age, I will never change my age. This is my age, why should I lie?’ According to Refugee Council staff, the boys spoke of being pressured to say they were older and told to “change” their date of birth. They spoke of being held at Manston in inhumane conditions. One boy said: “When we first arrived I stayed in Dover. We were told that you have to change your date of birth to grow up. If you make your date of birth older then we will put you on the bus and you will leave immediately. Because I was struggling, I was very cold, I told them whatever you decide to put me on, do it, I just wanted to leave.” Two recent reports by the Refugee Council and the Greater Manchester Migration Support Unit found that misclassifying children as adults put them at risk of abuse and neglect. After detailed age assessments, most of those initially assessed as adults by the Home Office were later determined to be children. Renae Mann, executive director of services at the Refugee Council, said: “This autumn, our staff have seen an unprecedented and overwhelming number of unaccompanied refugee children being misidentified by immigration officers as adults. We recently supported over 70 children in an adults-only hotel. Some children housed at Manston told us they were pressured by officials to say they were adults with the promise they would be moved to adult accommodation more quickly. This is extremely worrying and puts children’s safety at risk.” Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Mandy Harris, of the Human Rights Network, said: “It is in the Government’s best interests to treat these children as adults as it gives them the opportunity to remove them from the UK. We have already been contacted by children treated as adults with letters stating the Home Office’s intention to remove them to Rwanda. We were also told by a recently arrived child that on his arrival at Dover he was told by officials that if he did not say he was an adult he would be held at Manston for a few weeks and that no one would help him.’ The Home Office said: “We were unable to investigate these baseless allegations made to us by the Guardian as we were not provided with concrete evidence. We take such allegations very seriously. The protection and well-being of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is our highest priority. “Children are at risk when adults seeking asylum claim to be children or when children are mistakenly treated as adults. All those claiming to be unaccompanied children are age-assessed by officers. “Suggestions that border enforcement officials asked asylum seekers to lie about their age are baseless speculation.”
