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■ 3. The Law Society and the Legal Services Com-
whether the Home Office ever disputed that they
mission should include a module on representing
were in fact children. In February 2004, in 13 out of
unaccompanied children in the curriculum for
39 appeals where an unaccompanied or separated
the Immigration Accreditation Process.
child’s age was disputed, the adjudicator accepted
that the appellant was under 18 or had been on
■ 4. The Legal Services Commission should permit
arrival; the relevant proportions were 22 of 37 cases
a tolerance of 15% where solicitors are represent-
in May 2004 and 11 out of 13 in October 2004. In
ing unaccompanied or separated children.
one case, the adjudicator inexplicably left age to
be decided by a court in Somaliland.
SEEKING ASYLUM ALONE | UNITED KINGDOM
156
■ 5. The revised merits test for Controlled Legal
Representation should also apply to former or age
disputed unaccompanied or separated children.
12.5 Age Disputes and
the Appeal Process
An analysis of the determinations promulgated
in February, May, and October 2004
indicates that the age of some unaccompanied
or separated children continues to be an issue
at the appeal stage in a significant minority of cases.
In some others, adjudicators refer to the age of the
unaccompanied or separated child but it is unclear
If these statistics are representative (and there is
no reason to believe that they are not as the three
months subjected to detailed scrutiny were randomly
chosen) it is probable that a significant
minority of unaccompanied or separated children
have been wrongly treated as adults throughout
the asylum determination process.
The reasons for finding that the appellant is a child
vary. Medical evidence of age was accepted in three
appeals in February but rejected in two others. In
the latter two appeals and in one other where there
was no medical evidence, the adjudicator based the
finding solely on the child’s physical appearance.
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