Trafficked and migrant children - Age assessment cases: a culture of disbelief?

In June this year, the Children's Legal Centre secured a victory in the High Court for an 18-year-old trafficked girl, who had arrived in the UK aged five and was kept as a domestic slave. Having suffered prolonged systematic abuse for 10 years, "Y" escaped and approached the London Borough of Hillingdon for support. One would expect, or hope, that any subsequent court case would have resulted in criminal proceedings against the traffickers of Y. But instead, the legal battle centred on the local authority's decision to dispute her age. Y did not have any official documents to prove her date of birth and Hillingdon concluded, after conducting its own age assessment and a dental assessment, that she was three years older than her claimed age of 16. In their view, therefore, she was an adult - her foster placement was terminated and she was told she would no longer be entitled to any support or accommodation from the local authority children's services department.