AN ILLEGAL migrant who claimed to be 15 was found to be eight years older after officials spotted his date of birth on Instagram.
The Sudanese asylum seeker, who arrived in the UK in the back of a lorry, used it to sign up for the messaging service, a tribunal was told.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has vowed to ‘ramp up’ deportations[/caption]
The Sudanese asylum seeker arrived in the UK in the back of a lorry[/caption]
The migrant, referred to by the initials HO, will now be treated as an adult meaning that, unlike child refugees, he can be deported.
He is also no longer entitled to the level of healthcare, education and sustenance kids in care get.
He had reached Britain in February 2023, getting off the truck in Luton.
He then travelled to London where he told police he was a teenager.
HO was put in care by South London’s Southwark Council but suspicions arose because he was rarely seen with boys the age he claimed to be, was independent and did not like being treated as a child.
He was kicked out of foster care for repeatedly smoking in his room, the immigration tribunal heard.
The authorities launched an investigation and found his birth date — January 1, 2000 — on his Instagram profile, making him 23 on arrival in Britain.
He claimed he was born on February 19, 2007. The tribunal heard there were “multiple inconsistencies” in HO’s account in his “age assessment process”.
Ruling against his appeal for a judicial review, Upper Tribunal Judge Karim-ullah Akbar Khan said: “The most objective and persuasive evidence of his date of birth is his social media account.”
We told in July how 40 per cent of small boat migrants claiming to be children were later found to be adults.
Many destroy ID papers en route. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has vowed to “ramp up” deportations.
The Home Office was asked to comment on HO.
