Calais Jungle’s real children desperate for new UK life elbowed out of the way by migrant ‘minors’ twice their size
Calais aid workers were suspicious that those in the front of the queue were not the most needy
CHILDREN crying out for a new life in Britain are being elbowed out of the way by migrants twice their size.
Nine-year-old Daniel Gadi is typical. He has family in London but has to watch places taken by “children” looking suspiciously like adults.
His plight in the Calais Jungle camp makes a mockery of the Home Office’s handling of a wave of transfers triggered by a Government vote to allow in unaccompanied kids.
Last night an immigration source told The Sun the oldest looking man among yesterday’s 14 arrivals was still sticking to his story.
The source said: “He continued to tell the Home Office he is a minor when they interviewed him. He says he comes from Afghanistan and will meet his older brother to start a new life in Britain.”
The unnamed migrant, wearing a blue hoodie, walked out of the Home Office building in Croydon, South London, clutching a form titled “application for bio-metric residence permit”.
Another had a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “You can’t stop me”.
In Calais aid workers heaped further doubt on the screening process. One said: “It’s a complete mess.
“Those at the front of the queue are not the most needy and vulnerable. They are adults pretending.”
Another said: “I know there are vulnerable kids who are still here that have family in the UK they could be with right now.
“It’s a shambles. Children are not being told what they are queuing up for, they are not being given information, there is complete confusion.”
There are around 1,200 minors stranded in the camp, which is due to be demolished.
Official figures show that more than than two-thirds of the so-called ‘child refugees’ who had their ages assessed by the Home Office were found to actually be adults.
Data from the year ending in June revealed that 1,060 asylum applicants' ages were called into question.
Of the 933 who were recorded as having an age assessment, 636 (68%) were deemed to be over 18.
From January 2006 to June 2016, 11,847 applicants were assessed for their age, of whom 5,278 (45%) were found to be over 18.
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Tory MP David Davies has called for tests on teeth to verify the age of teenage migrants after he said a number who arrived in the UK from Calais this week "don't look like 'children".
Despite criticism for his stance he defended the idea this morning, saying the authorities should not be "naive" about the issue of adults trying to get into the UK.
He said refugees who had been through an ordeal to reach the UK would not be concerned about having their age checked.
"Someone who is willing to throw themselves on to an electrified rail line or jump into a moving lorry isn't going to be terribly worried about having an X-ray,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
"We must not be naive about this. It's no good Lily Allen turning up with tears in her eyes and all the rest of it - we need to be quite hard-nosed here.
"People are desperate, I understand that, and they will say what they need to say to get in.
"When I was in the camp in Calais there were caravans with notices on saying 'Come here, we will coach you in what to say to get into the UK'."
He added: "People in Britain, I think, want to help children but we don't want to be taken for a free ride either by people who seem to have got to the front of the queue even though they clearly look, in some cases, a lot older than 18."
Mr Davies also said he did not accept that it was "intrusive" to take an X-ray of a migrant.
Tory MP Ranil Jayawardena, who sits on the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “I think the British public will be very surprised to see that, instead of primary school-aged children arriving, we are finding young men, perhaps even adults, coming across our border.
“I don’t think this is what Parliament intended at all. Parliament was trying to support those who most need our help — and instead find they were actually helping those with the sharpest elbows.
“This demonstrates that knee-jerk responses led by certain MPs in response to very emotive pictures doesn’t always result in what Parliament or the British public want.”
Meanwhile, one of the first group of 14 children to be fast-tracked said he would welcome tests to ensure the migrants are under 18.
Afghan Haris Stanikzi, 16 — reunited with his uncle and young cousins — said: “It’s a problem because we haven’t got any documents to prove anything.
“Me and my brother had to run away because the Taliban burnt our house down after they accused us of helping the government.
“We have all had a very difficult time and I am just happy to be here with my family.”
Haris said his uncle paid smugglers to help him and his 21-year-old brother Hamid escape.
Back in Calais, tearful Daniel, from Eritrea, still waits.
His father Abaye told how the youngster’s mum had died, but he cannot get the lad to Britain because he is technically not unaccompanied.
Abaye said: “I want him to go to London to be with his mother’s sister. We have been here for three months, I do not want my son to be here.
“I have two sons aged 12 and 16 who are already in London with their aunt. Their mother is dead.”