Migrant children in the UK are at risk of being sent to Rwanda, campaigners have warned.
The Refugee Council claims errors were made by the government in some of its age assessments of youngsters who sought asylum in the UK.
It said it has already had to “intervene to stop children who were incorrectly assessed as adults from being detained awaiting removal to Rwanda” as part of a UK government policy to deter migrants from crossing the Channel.
The Home Office previously said no lone migrant children would be sent to Rwanda, but families may be in line for removal.
The news comes as Channel crossings resumed on Thursday after a five-day hiatus due to bad weather, with children among the first group of migrants brought ashore.
A report published by the Refugee Council on Friday said almost all, 94 per cent, of 233 children it supported last year were wrongly considered to be aged over 18 by the Home Office.
And in more than half the cases, the government claimed they were at least 25.
Only 14 were found to be adults.
Enver Solomon, the charity's chief executive, said the blunders leave children at risk of abuse and neglect, as well as without proper support or education.
He said: “Every day refugee children are at risk of abuse and neglect because hasty, woeful decision-making routinely mistakes them for adults. Time and again the government claims that people are always lying about their age but the evidence shows they are not.
“We are very worried that children are going to be sent to Rwanda, which will have devastating consequences for young people who have already suffered so much.
“We urge the government to immediately take heed of our recommendations and do better by vulnerable children it has a duty to protect.”
In January, the government brought in scientific advisers in a bid to use X-rays and other medical checks on asylum seekers to stop grown men “masquerading as children” on their applications.
The number of adult asylum seekers falsely claiming to be children is a “significant issue”, the Home Office said as it announced it was setting up a scientific advisory committee to get advice on ways of checking the ages of those arriving in the UK.
The committee is considering the accuracy and reliability of a “range of scientific methods for estimating age”, as well as ethical and medical issues, before reporting its findings.
But the council's report described the plans as “flawed”, adding that they risk more children being wrongly treated as adults with some “forced to go through scientific procedures that are not reliable”.
The government needs to be more transparent by publishing “adequate and accurate” data on the subject so the true scale of the problem can be known, the charity said.
More than 32,300 people have crossed the Channel to the UK so far this year, government figures show.
So far, 7,047 people have come to shore in September, figures suggest.
August 22 saw the highest number of people brought to the UK in a single day so far this year, with 1,295 rescued in the Channel.
In April, the then home secretary, Priti Patel, announced the “world-first” agreement with Rwanda by providing one-way tickets to some asylum seekers.
However, the first deportation flight was grounded amid a series of legal challenges.
Earlier this month, the UN Refugee Agency told the High Court the Rwanda plan was “incompatible with UK’s fundamental obligations”.
The UNHCR said Rwanda “lacks irreducible minimum components of an accessible, reliable, fair and efficient asylum system”.
“There are serious defects in the Rwandan refugee status determination system,” said Laura Dubinsky QC, for the UNHCR.
“The fact that a part of the Rwandan asylum system sometimes operates outside of Rwandan law … significantly increases the risk of arbitrary decision making.”
Speaking to BBC Radio Kent about the Rwanda deal on Thursday morning, Prime Minister Liz Truss said: “We are [sticking with the Rwanda policy] and what we will make sure is that UK courts can't be overruled by the European Court of Human Rights so we are able to deal with the small boats crisis, and the home secretary is determined to get on with that.”
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Zayed Sustainability Prize
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
England's lowest Test innings
- 45 v Australia in Sydney, January 28, 1887
- 46 v West Indies in Port of Spain, March 25, 1994
- 51 v West Indies in Kingston, February 4, 2009
- 52 v Australia at The Oval, August 14, 1948
- 53 v Australia at Lord's, July 16, 1888
- 58 v New Zealand in Auckland, March 22, 2018
Bundesliga fixtures
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3EName%3A%20DarDoc%3Cbr%3EBased%3A%20Abu%20Dhabi%3Cbr%3EFounders%3A%20Samer%20Masri%2C%20Keswin%20Suresh%3Cbr%3ESector%3A%20HealthTech%3Cbr%3ETotal%20funding%3A%20%24800%2C000%3Cbr%3EInvestors%3A%20Flat6Labs%2C%20angel%20investors%20%2B%20Incubated%20by%20Hub71%2C%20Abu%20Dhabi's%20Department%20of%20Health%3Cbr%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%2010%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Qosty Byogaani
Starring: Hani Razmzi, Maya Nasir and Hassan Hosny
Four stars
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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Company name: Entrupy
Co-founders: Vidyuth Srinivasan, co-founder/chief executive, Ashlesh Sharma, co-founder/chief technology officer, Lakshmi Subramanian, co-founder/chief scientist
Based: New York, New York
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
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BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
The years Ramadan fell in May
CHELSEA'S NEXT FIVE GAMES
Mar 10: Norwich(A)
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Apr 2: Brentford(H)
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Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
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The five pillars of Islam
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Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
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England squad
Joe Root (captain), Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Gary Ballance, Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Ben Stokes (vice-captain), Moeen Ali, Liam Dawson, Toby Roland-Jones, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, James Anderson.
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