UK "Migrants" pretending to be much younger than they are?

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A couple of weeks after the start of this term, pupils at Stoke High School in Ipswich were told that a new boy was joining their GCSE class.

His name was Siavash, and he had quite a life story: Born in Iran, the teenager had been forced to flee the Middle Eastern theocracy in mysterious circumstances, and had since managed to cross Europe, with only a younger brother for company.

Having arrived in the UK – it’s not clear how – the duo promptly claimed asylum, declaring themselves to be 15 and 12 years old respectively.

Like any unaccompanied child refugees, the boys were informed that, should they remain in full-time education, they’d be looked after by the local authority until reaching the age of 25.

Should they gain sufficient qualifications, the taxpayer would even be required to foot the bill for them to attend university.

At 6ft 1in, he stood head and shoulders over many classmates, while his chin was flecked with stubble.

He also boasted a protruding Adam’s apple and a hairline that, from a certain angle, was starting to recede. In the cold light of day, many suspected he was nearer 30 than 20.

According to playground gossip, Siavash even confided to one contemporary that he was a married father of two who had decided to pose as a teenager because his academic qualifications weren’t recognised in the UK.

By claiming to be children, the new arrivals were entitled not just to free education, but also to places in local authority children’s homes (in areas with high migrant populations such as Kent, up to half the places in such homes are taken by unaccompanied asylum seekers).

Photos of them duly made the front pages. A backbench Tory MP, David Davies, then fuelled the controversy by first claiming that the new arrivals ‘don’t look like children to me’ and then sparking outrage on the political Left by calling for unaccompanied child refugees to be given dental examinations to confirm their true age.

Such a procedure had, he pointed out, recently been introduced in Norway, where it was then revealed that nine out of ten of those tested were over 18. Yet for suggesting that Britain ought to follow the example of the Scandinavian bastion of liberalism, Davies was likened to Hitler.

Once the controversy in Croydon died down, the Home Office did eventually decide to tighten its procedures, however.

Over the following year, it raised 705 age disputes related to unaccompanied child asylum seekers. Of the 618 resolved, 402 (65 per cent) claimants were found to be over 18 and just 216 (35 per cent) were found to be children.