People seeking asylum who say they are children are being housed alongside adults

On 8 April, social workers mentioned in an email that they had offered beds at Crooksling to two “age-disputed” asylum seekers, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

On the grounds of an old nursing home in Crooksling, out towards Saggart, the government has set up massive tents filled with bunk beds for men seeking asylum.

On 4 April, another email from staff at the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) noted that “1 disputed adult” was among those who had shown up at the International Protection Office (IPO) on Mount Street in the city centre to lodge an asylum claim and needed somewhere to sleep.

The snippets show that there are young people who say they are children, being channelled through the same processes and accommodation as adults. But a statistics blackout means it’s unclear how many.

Nick Henderson, CEO of the Irish Refugee Council, says age-disputed young people who are still waiting on the results of assessments of how old they are should not be housed alongside adults.

If the state can’t house them separately at the moment, it should at least keep track of their numbers accurately, he said.

“So that relevant authorities, policymakers, and decision-makers are aware of their whereabouts, the extent of the issues arising, and how to meet their needs,” Henderson said.

Said Fiona Hurley, CEO of migrants’ rights non-profit NASC: “We really need to see improved protections put in place for these young people.”

Disputed ages

When young people, who have travelled alone to Ireland and seek asylum, say they’re younger than 18, border guards or IPO workers can say they don’t believe them.

In those cases, they are referred to Tusla’s social workers for age assessments, a process for which the agency has only recently rolled out guidelines.

Syrian and Afghan kids topped the list of children who travelled to Europe on their own in search of safety in 2023, according to Eurostat figures.

Between July 2023 and April 2024, 135 unaccompanied children applied for asylum in Ireland, its figures show.

In April 2023, Tusla social workers assessed a young Sudanese asylum seeker’s age and decided he was an adult in just hours. They’d also argued that he may be lying about being from Sudan, the boy said.

The boy later brought a PDF scan of a government-issued Sudanese ID, but that doesn’t always guarantee success. They gave him a shot to appeal but didn’t change their minds in the end.

In summer 2022, Tusla also left a teenage boy to live alone in adult centres for months, even after he showed his birth certificate to IPO workers, until they finally took him into care.

While waiting to be assessed, age-disputed young people have to share space with adults in IPAS shelters.

But the Department of Children and Equality – the body in charge of running IPAS –  doesn’t say how many young people like that live in its centres.

A department spokesperson in May 2022 didn’t answer that question. And, they haven’t responded to a fresh query sent on Thursday either, also asking why they don’t have the figure, if they don’t.

The opacity also means it’s not possible to get up-to-date figures for how many times people beat accusations of lying about their age.

Meanwhile, Tusla has stopped collating age assessment data, statistics that it used to compile and release.

It isn’t compiling the outcome of appeals of age assessments either, said a spokesperson for Tusla. Those are just recorded on each person’s file, they said.

That’s been the case since at least early 2023.

Declared adult

Tusla did previously release the outcome of its age assessments between 2016 and 2020.

Of 115 young people assessed in that window, it only judged 48 as qualifying for its care as children.

Under section 24 of the International Protection Act 2015, the Minister for Justice or an IPO officer is in charge of age assessments rather than Tusla. But the Department of Justice generally bases its calls on Tusla opinions.

It’s unclear what usually triggers age disputes at the border or at the IPO office, but the Council of Europe warns against initiating them merely based on young people’s appearance.

Tusla’s new guidelines for age assessment say the assessment is generally done over a day, but it can be extended if necessary for fairness and thoroughness.

The process includes a questionnaire, covering the young person’s documents, psychological state, and how they travelled alone.

The lack of data around appeals for age disputes and the outcomes makes it harder to scrutinise the rulings of Tusla or the Department of Justice.

Kids can be misjudged as adults and it is concerning when it happens, says Hurley, CEO of NASC.

They have to live on their own in unsuitable settings and sometimes go through fast-tracked asylum procedures without proper time to prepare to face them, she said.

A kid misjudged to be an adult also loses the benefit of the doubt in asylum interviews. Meaning it counts against them if, say, they forget something they had mentioned previously or tell their story a little differently at different points.