Does this include any of the females that manage to make the trip as well?
Migrants who have crossed the border from Austria are pictured walking to a registration point in the village of Simbach in southern Germany. Officials in Austria say half of all migrants who say they are children are adults
HALF of refugees claiming to be children in Austria are adults… and many even arrive with ‘grey hair and beards’ say officials
- Austrian officials says there has been a jump in bogus child claims
- Last year claims by 951 out of 2,200 asylum seekers were disproved
- The medical tests used to prove age has cost Austria 2m euros (£1.59m)
- The majority of the ‘fake children’ (691) were from Afghanistan
Half of all migrants claiming to be children are lying, according to Austrian officials who say the ‘juveniles’ are sometimes in their 30s and have grey hair and beards.
The unnamed official told Austrian journalists: ‘It is completely absurd. We have men turning up here with full beards and grey hair claiming to be children.’
Austrian officials said that of 2,200 asylum seekers claiming to be children, 951 were found to be considerably older following medical tests.
But under Austrian law every person claiming to be a juvenile has to be given child status, until medical tests can prove otherwise.
An official from Austria’s Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl (BFA) immigration agency said two million euros (£1.59m) had been spent on these medical tests.
Very few migrants from Syria, Afghanistan or Nigeria have birth certificates or other identity papers which can be relied upon to give an accurate estimate of their age.
