Balding Migrant Pupil Who Looked 40 Disappears from School

A balding migrant who claimed to be 15 but appeared 40 has disappeared from his school after the Home Office launched an investigation following an uproar from parents and pupils.

Reports circulated in October that an ‘unaccompanied child migrant’, believed to be from the Gambia, was attending a school in Coventry, England. Unredacted images on social media showed a balding individual with a lined face, dark circles under his eyes and other signs of ageing.

Children began questioning his age when he joined the school in October, taking pictures of the migrant to show to their parents, prompting complaints to the school. Administrators, however, appeared more concerned over safeguarding the alleged child migrant’s identity, instructing parents not to share his picture online and at one point accusing a mother of “bullying” for posting his image on Snapchat.

Shortly after, the Home Office launched an urgent investigation, with the Metro reporting on Thursday that the pupil has since “vanished” from school.

Just two years ago, children at a school in Ipswich shared on social media pictures of a ’15-year-old’ fellow pupil who turned out to be twice that age. In one post on Snapchat, one pupil asked: “How’s there a 30-year-old man in our maths class?”

Shortly after, a second pupil was pulled from Stoke High School from year 7 — notionally aged 11 or 12 — although authorities did not reveal the nature of the removal or if the two pupils were related.

Kent County Council revealed in August that 25 per cent of migrants claiming to minors whose age was challenged were later proven to be adults.