Helen Bamber Foundation and Young Roots highlight intimidating, hostile and threatening environment of age disputes
A report published last month by the Helen Bamber Foundation (HBF) and Young Roots finds that the age assessment process has a profound and harmful impact on the mental health of unaccompanied child asylum seekers.
You can download the 16-page report here.
The report has a particular focus on the impact of age assessments conducted by local authorities. Despite changes introduced to the age assessment process by the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, local authorities are still expected to carry out the majority of age assessments.
In order to better understand the impact of the process on young asylum seekers, HBF and Young Roots conducted a focus group with seven young people who had been age disputed, including those who were and were not ultimately found to be adults.
As the report details: "The young people explained that the long, drawn-out process of the age dispute had a significant mental health impact as they felt stuck in limbo, unsure of what their future would hold. This prolonged uncertainty generated feelings of despondency and detachment from others, compounded by frustration with inconsistent information and delays in resolution. Further, the agonising wait for an outcome seemed to reinforce a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness, magnified by a perceived lack of support and isolation. These experiences were further intensified by a sense that peers struggled to understand their experiences and by shifts in their relationship with social care."
Young people experienced feelings of betrayal and a breakdown of trust as a result of not being believed over their age, especially in the relationship with their designated social worker who is often one of the key supportive adults in their lives in the UK.
The breakdown of trust had a significant negative impact on the mental health of the young asylum seekers, intensified further by the stressful nature of needing to continually re-tell their story within a perceived atmosphere of judgement, scrutiny, and disbelief.
Overall, the age assessment process is perceived as being intimidating, hostile and threatening. The report warns that this negative atmosphere appears to impede young people's active participation in the age assessment process and may ultimately undermine the validity of the assessment's conclusions.
HBF and Young Roots found that this perceived environment of intimidation and threat was perhaps the most alarming of the experiences reported by the young people within or following the age dispute process.
"Unaccompanied children and young people reported mistreatment in the aftermath of the assessment, with some of the participants describing being threatened with repercussions including arrest, detention, and removal from the UK," the report explains.
It continues: "The young people also described a persistent sentiment of being unfairly regarded as deceitful and attempting to manipulate the system to gain access rights to which they were not entitled. This perception not only affected their interaction with social care and other professionals but also hindered their willingness to seek out support. Further, participants highlighted adverse effects on their mental health and well-being, with some even reporting experiencing suicidal thoughts. For some, this perceived dishonesty appeared to result in punitive treatment, including threats of arrest, detention, and removal, which contributed to fears regarding the potential repercussions of the age assessment on their pending asylum claims."
Accompanying the report is a second report by HBF and Young Roots that sets out how the age assessment process can be improved by using an ongoing, trauma-informed, and holistic approach that can allow professionals to build an authentic picture of a young person's age.
The 20-page report is here.
It describes the 'Hub' support model developed and provided by Young Roots caseworkers and HBF psychologists in order to encourage other organisations and individuals to adopt a similar approach to supporting young people going through the age assessment process.
Young Roots runs weekly, multi-agency 'Advice and Support Hub' sessions for young refugees and asylum seekers, which has been highly effective in supporting young people through their age disputes.
The report highlights: "The evidence from the Young Roots and Helen Bamber Foundation approach in the Hub model demonstrates that: • holistic, long-term support for age-disputed young people often allows them to better demonstrate their age in nuanced ways • independent professionals working with young people can provide good insight on a young person's presentation, and therefore their views should be considered in all appropriate cases. They are too often overlooked."