Eritrean migrant with ‘healthy beard and moustache’ should be treated as a child, asylum judge rules

AN ERITREAN migrant with a “healthy beard” should be treated as a child, an asylum judge has ruled. The migrant, who went as far as ensuring his avatars on social media had beards, gave five different dates of birth when he arrived in the UK. The Home Secretary was reportedly ordered to pay £10,000 towards his legal bills Credit: AFP The migrant insisted he was born in April 2007 Credit: Getty He is alleged to have come to the country in the back of a lorry in 2024. The Home Office’s National Age Assessment Board found that he was an adult but the asylum seeker has applied for a judicial review. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Officials concluded he was “not entitled to any of the statutory benefits” given to children, prompting his challenge. After lawyers failed to prove he was an adult, the Home Secretary was ordered to pay £10,000 towards his legal bills. The Telegraph reports that she is considering appealing against the decision. The asylum seeker is now officially 19 and has been named only as BSB. He travelled from Belgium to the UK after climbing onto the back of a HGV bound for Britain with other migrants. The migrant claims he woke up and to his “amazement” was in Folkestone, where he gave false names and dates of birth ranging from 1996 to 2007. Most read in The Sun Upper Tribunal Judge Gaenor Bruce has now rejected the suggestion that “recent shaving, an Adam’s apple and a moustache and beard growth” proved the migrant was over 18. Home Office staff had “assessed his physical appearance and demeanour to very strongly suggest that he is significantly over 18 years of age.” Two Border Force staff members concluded he was “in fact 28 years old” and two social workers thought he was likely “aged between 22 and 25.” Despite this, the judge said: “What I was able to see was the healthy beard that the applicant quite proudly sported. “He explained to the assessors that he had been regularly shaving since [arriving in] Libya, in an effort to make his facial hair thicker, because he likes it. “On the evidence before me, that effort paid off. I note that the applicant’s pride in his beard is also evident from the ‘avatar’, connected with the TikTok account that he opened in the middle of the age assessment process.” Judge Gaenor Bruce went on to reject the suggestion that the migrant had a “receding hairline, or deep lines in his face.” Gaenor Bruce accepted that the migrant lied about parts of his journey to Britain, saying he felt “under pressure” from the smugglers and adults travelling with him. The judge went on to note the “very positive” impression the migrant had on the officials who assessed him. When he arrived in March 2024, the migrant insisted he was born in April 2007 – making him 16 years and 11 months old. The judge concluded: “Drawing all of that together, and bearing in mind that in marginal cases such as this one, the benefit of the doubt must always lie with the young person, I conclude on the balance of probabilities that the applicant is telling the truth about his date of birth.” The man is reportedly applying for asylum in the UK. A Home Office spokesman said: “Robust age assessments are a vital tool in maintaining border security. “As part of our work to make this process more robust and consistent, we are exploring cutting-edge AI technology to verify migrants’ ages. “This government is firmly committed to removing those with no right to be here, with nearly 70,000 returned since coming into office.”