Asylum seekers face bone tests to check ages

COMPULSORY bone density tests may be introduced to check the ages of asylum seekers who arrive unaccompanied in Ireland claiming to be under 18.

It follows a pilot study that showed just 15 of 142 referred for age tests were assessed as minors. A large number refused to take the test.

Nearly 3,500 young people, 792 in the year to the end of March, who have arrived unaccompanied in Ireland since 1998 said they were children.