UK Borders Bill

I accept the evidence that the noble Baroness presents to the Committee. In Ethiopia—not today—and in other places such as Darfur, children do not have the nutrition and support that they have in the United Kingdom. So we come to how we determine a child’s age. Do we do it from documentation? A child from that sort of area may have no documentation. A birth certificate could be a counterfeit. We do not know, so we have to look at another way. In 2005, 2,965 child applicants for admission to the UK had their age accepted, but in 45 per cent of cases—2,424 applicants—there was a dispute about age. We suggest that an immediate assessment is not reliable or fair. When a child comes here, he is traumatised and vulnerable. His background is so difficult, and the new culture that he will experience in the UK is so vastly different from what he has had in the past that we must give him time to settle in. A continuous assessment should be made while the child is settling in the UK. If we put consideration of age on hold, we could have regional age assessment centres where skilled social workers and medical professionals could see how the child develops and could more reliably assess age. We suggest that an immediate decision is not needed. We need to realise how sensitive this issue is and that that child needs support and love, which he may not have had in the past. As time goes on, the age of the child can be assessed. That might be more reliable, although I do not know whether it would be 100 per cent reliable because we look at people of different ages in our own House and say, ““Is he really 103?””. Age differs, so we must take our time and not decide immediately. We should let the child settle down, and then skilled people will be able to make a fairer assessment.