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.

While many are reunited with relatives and some are assessed as adults, the health boards applied for asylum on behalf of over 1,500. Refugee status was granted at first instance in just 169 cases while three youngsters were deported last year.

The Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner confirmed it is examining a number of medical age determination procedures but that no definitive decision has yet been made about their introduction.

Children’s Minister Brian Lenihan, in a written Dáil answer, said the bone density pilot project said doubts concerning the age of some applicants were well-founded in a majority of cases.

The Minister of State added: “This project was followed up ... by further detailed research among other EU member states as to reliable age testing systems in use elsewhere.

“This research indicated that there is no universally- accepted indisputable medical age-determination system but a number of approaches have merit and I am informed that these will be considered further by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner in 2004,” he said.

Of the 142 referred for age assessment during the pilot stage, 49, or 35%, were shown to be over 18, 12 admitted to being over 18 while 66 refused to do the test. Fifteen15 were shown to be 18 plus or minus a year and were accepted as minors. Of the 792 presenting in the year up to the end of March, 114 were assessed as being over 18.

In 2003, 830 presented themselves as unaccompanied minors and 451 were reunited with relatives.

Staff interview the individual and make the assessment on the basis of his or her background and intellectual and physical maturity.

Due to the considerable difficulty of determining age with any certainty, a large benefit of the doubt is applied, according to Mr Lenihan.