Thread by @iamjillianmc

I’ve found the coverage of the inquest into Alexander Tekle’s suicide too painful to comment on.

Until now.

(This will be a LONG one.)

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This is in part due to some high-quality, humanising coverage from journalists such as @maybulman and @ameliagentleman - an antidote to the dehumanising weaponisation of the issue by Patel et al and their disingenuous deployment of stats.

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However, the main reason I’ve been so affected is because after 11 years of working on age assessment in a focused way and longer in the refugee sector

It. Just. Feels. So. Depressingly. Familiar.

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Alexander & his friends could easily have been just about any one of the age-disputed young people I supported as a Guardian. Or a young person whose support I oversaw when managing services.

I sincerely believe that we live on the verge of something similar happening again.
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Aaand the #NationalityAndBordersBill will escalate risk exponentially.

The period in which someone has been excluded from child protection & children’s rights frameworks, but have not exhausted all legal avenues for being recognised as a child, is perilous.

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I know from bitter experience that relying on adult safeguarding thresholds for young people who find themselves in an abusive relationship or struggle with suicide ideation, and who may still be recognised as a child, is no joke.

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Being their sole voluntary sector advocate is also no joke.

When managing services at the Red Cross, my team responded to more incidents of suicide ideation than there are working days in the year.

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Age disputed young people & those 18-25 (largely males whom Patel views as not vulnerable) were more likely to feel suicidal.

Staff provided in-depth support, accompanying to events like reporting at @ukhomeoffice– a seemingly routine event that can trigger panic attacks.

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Some of the young people they supported were also trafficked but victim care isn’t really resourced to meet the depth of the need.

Many of these young people go on to eventually be legally recognised as children.

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Advocacy often requires resource-intensive evidence gathering on the part of services and a young person who is able to stay engaged.

This is also where we have a gaping hole in the stats that enables the gross misrepresentation of the issue.

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When an age disputed young person is found to be a child, invariably the relief for them and the workers around them is palpable.

It will usually mean access to comparatively age-appropriate accommodation.

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But the peril in the period when an age dispute is ongoing and a young person is being treated as an adult lies not just in the age appropriateness of it all.

Age assessment is complex and never precise, that's why the benefit of the doubt is vital.

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Erroneously treating children as adults risks depriving them of their rights as children.

However, the sheer brutality of the asylum system makes the risks all the more stark.

No human should have to endure our current adult asylum system whether 15, 35 or 75.

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Given that accommodation is on a no-choice basis, 20 yo & 40 yo will be housed together.

It’s a matter of chance whether a pairing works or power dynamics ranging from uncomfortable to abusive take hold. Safeguarding is woeful and changing accommodation almost impossible.

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The asylum system grips people in psychological limbo and abject poverty –constraining choices to such an extent that a persons very identity is in jeopardy.

It stamps on hope. It creates the conditions for vulnerability to abuse, exploitation, and diminished mental health.
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The #AntiRefugeeBill will increase risk by both increasing the number of children wrongly treated as adults & making the adult system even more violent.

The realities of age assessment and of the asylum system are a million miles from how Patel et al depict them.

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Have I met the odd young person who confessed to being older than they first stated? I have.

But there are 3 things I want to say on that.

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Firstly, in my experience, such cases are few & far between and are far less common than children who are later found to be children having spent harmful periods in adult systems.

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Secondly, we need to be cautious when someone undergoing age-assessment (on top of other gruelling processes) then says that they are over 18 in the face of pressure.

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As adults, it is our duty to be cautious that they are not just giving up because:

- they’re in traumatic collapse and/or unaware of their rights,
- think “what difference can it really make if my records make me 6 months older?” (real example).

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Third, I’ve never encountered a real-life situation in which there was any indication that an age-disputed person was praying upon children.

Rather they have been scared individuals acting on advice or instructions from others including both smugglers and traffickers.

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Patel et al have weaponised age assessment in their demonisation of all seeking sanctuary.

There are many in the sector who work on the issue tirelessly and with the sophistication it needs.

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But I wish that, as a sector, we’d done more to get ahead of Home Office rhetoric.

Right now, that rhetoric will be colouring the views of the public including key public services that are not exposed to the realities.

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I shudder to think what impact it is having in social work offices, police stations, doctors surgeries, supermarkets and the streets.

It's entirely predictable that the current rhetoric will embolden racists and that we’ll see a spike in racist hate crime.

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It will take much more if we want to do right by Alexander, Filmon, Mulubrhane, and Osman.

Thanks for reading.

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Thanks Louise! Hope you’re well!

Thanks Anna! Hope you’re well and settled into the new role - they seem like like a bold & dynamic bunch, I’m sure you fit right in.

Thanks so much!