Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 May 2004
181 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of unaccompanied minors who have arrived in the State in the past 12 months and have been assessed as being over 18 years by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner; and the expertise that is employed in making these assessments. [13080/04]
View answerI am informed that in the 12 month period to end March 2004, a total of 792 persons presented to the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner as unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. Of these, 114 were assessed by the office to be over 18 years and were admitted to the asylum process as adults.
Under section 8(5)(a) of the Refugee Act 1996, as amended, where it appears to an authorised officer of the commissioner that a person under the age of 18 has arrived in the State and is not in the custody of any adult, that child shall be referred to the relevant health board to determine whether an application for asylum should be made on his or her behalf.
It is, however, the case that some persons present to the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner who claim to be minors but appear in fact to be older. In these cases, an age assessment is carried out by experienced staff of the office following an interview with the person and by reference the account provided of his or her background and apparent intellectual and physical maturity. Due to the considerable difficulty of determining age with any certainty, a large benefit of the doubt is applied and the decision can subsequently be reviewed at the request of applicants and-or their legal advisor, including if additional relevant information is forthcoming. The Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner will also reassess the case if, following referral to the health board, the relevant officials of that board express the opinion that the applicant is in fact an adult.
The Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner is continuing to examine possible means of supplementing this assessment process using medical age determination techniques. A pilot project was carried out in 2002 based on a medical assessment of bone density and the results of this project suggested that the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner's doubts concerning the age of the applicants in question were well-founded in a majority of cases. This project was followed up during 2003 by further detailed research among other EU member states as to reliable age testing systems in use elsewhere. This research indicated that there is no universally accepted indisputable medical age determination system but a number of approaches have merit and I am informed that these will be considered further by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner in 2004.
