Asylum age disputes add strain to council services

Asylum seekers who are disputing their adult age have placed "significant operational and financial pressure" on children's services, a council said.

Bedford Borough Council said it has received 19 referrals since April 2025, relating to people detained at Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) who claimed to be children after being served with removal directions to France.

In a report discussed by councillors it confirmed that 10 of those individuals were now being housed by the authority at an average cost of £900 per week.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "Where uncertainty on age remains, an individual will be treated as a child whilst further age assessment is considered."

A pilot "one in, one out" scheme between the UK and France was launched in August 2025 aimed at reducing irregular Channel crossings by small boat.

Under the agreement, which has been extended to autumn 2026, individuals arriving in the UK via small boats may be detained at one of three IRCs including Yarl's Wood, before being returned to France, while the UK accepts an equivalent number of asylum seekers from France through a legal route.

The authority said: "Since the commencement of detentions at Yarl's Wood in early April 2025, Bedford Borough Council has experienced a significant increase in referrals relating to age-disputed individuals detained under the UK–France returns arrangements."

In this case, the council said it has carried out safeguarding and age assessment duties leading to seven people being identified as not being "significantly over the age of 18" and a further three have obtained legal representation to challenge decisions that had seen them classed as adults.

Bedford Borough Council has agreed to accommodate them pending completion of full age assessments but said the increase in referrals "placed significant operational and financial pressures" upon the authority.

Government funding of £1,001 per week for under-18s is available to cover some costs, but does not include additional social care costs such as the increased demand on staffing capacity, safeguarding responsibilities, emergency accommodation requirements, increased legal, assessment and placement costs, and wider pressures on children's services resources.

In the report, the authority said it had also reached its National Transfer Scheme threshold of 43 separated migrant children but expected warmer weather to lead to an increase in arrivals via small boats into the autumn.

The authority has recently been offered £80m of emergency financial help to tackle a multimillion-pound funding budget shortfall, while government inspectors have been visiting over the last three months, at a cost of £3,400 per day, to examine the way it operates.

However, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) age estimation tool that aims to detect adult migrants posing as children will be deployed at the UK's borders next year.

A software company has been awarded a contract to develop and test the technology, which will estimate a person's age by analysing photographs of them taken at the border.

A Home Office spokesperson added: "Robust age assessments are a vital tool in maintaining border security, which is why we are modernising this process by testing AI age-estimation technology to minimise the risk of incorrect decisions.

"The National Age Assessment Board continues to support all local authorities including Bedford."

But Human Rights Watch urged the government to scrap the scheme, describing it as "unproven technology" that would undermined the protections in which vulnerable children were entitled.

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