Kenny, Mary Anne; Loughry, Maryanne --- "‘These don’t look like children to me’: age assessment of unaccompanied and separated children" [2018] ELECD 705; in Crock, Mary; Benson, B. Lenni (eds), "Protecting Migrant Children" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 321

Book Title: Protecting Migrant Children

Editor(s): Crock, Mary; Benson, B. Lenni

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781786430250

Section: Chapter 16

Section Title: ‘These don’t look like children to me’: age assessment of unaccompanied and separated children

Author(s): Kenny, Mary Anne; Loughry, Maryanne

Number of pages: 13

Abstract/Description:

This chapter considers the procedures used where there are disputes about the chronological age of an unaccompanied or separated child seeking asylum. The chapter considers how age is interpreted in terms of what it means to be a ‘child’ in the legal, social and cultural sense. Current methods of age assessment in different countries are considered against the international human rights framework. The chapter proposes a different approach to the contested area of age disputes that recognizes young people’s ‘transition’ into adulthood and posits that agencies and governments should provide support and services on the basis of assessed needs and vulnerabilities of the individual rather than on an assessed chronological age.