Refugees marked for Rwanda deportation in Home Office row: Claim they are children

The Home Office has been accused of attempting to deport unaccompanied minors to Rwanda.

Charities claim there are a large number of asylum seekers who are under the age of 18 being classed as adults by the Government.

The refugee charity Care4Calais is currently engaged in an age dispute with the Home Office over two illegals who have been issued with notices of removal.

While the boys say they are 16, the Home Office – after undertaking age assessments – claim they are 23 and 26 respectively.

Anti-trafficking charity Love146 UK similarly expressed alarm over the Government’s age assessment system for asylum seekers.

Campaigns manager Daniel Sohege claimed to The Guardian that the charity is seeing children “as young as 14 being incorrectly age-assessed as 23”.

He added: “The number of children we have seen who have just had 1999 put down as their date of birth when they are clearly under 18 is highly concerning, and putting young people at risk.”

This comes after the Home Office said it will not remove any person from the UK if it is “unsafe or inappropriate” to do so, and denied that unaccompanied minors will be among those sent to Rwanda as part of the Government’s scheme to process migrants offshore.