{"id":516359,"date":"2026-06-24T18:01:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/516359\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T18:01:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:01:19","slug":"young-asylum-seekers-may-face-medical-tests-to-determine-age-as-a-last-resort-in-disputes-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/516359\/","title":{"rendered":"Young asylum seekers may face medical tests to determine age \u2018as a last resort\u2019 in disputes \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unaccompanied young asylum seekers whose age is disputed may face medical examinations \u201cas a last resort\u201d and where other processes prove inconclusive, the Department of Justice<\/a> has said.<\/p>\n

Such assessments, which have not been used in Ireland previously, are \u201cunreliable, unnecessary, and possibly invasive\u201d, the Children\u2019s Rights Alliance<\/a> (CRA) said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Determining the exact age of unaccompanied young people seeking asylum has become a significant issue in recent years for the department and Tusla<\/a>, the child and family agency, as the numbers arriving have increased.<\/p>\n

Tusla \u2013 currently accommodating 625 unaccompanied minors, of whom 179 are Ukrainian \u2013 describes finding places for those whose ages are disputed as \u201cchallenging\u201d as it cannot risk inadvertently placing an adult in accommodation with children.<\/p>\n

Last month it said that over the past four years, almost 300 asylum seekers who had claimed they were children were subsequently deemed to be adults<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Tusla withdrew a District Court application to have a young Somali it had accommodated with children declared an adult. The young person is charged with the murder of Vadym Davydenko<\/a> (17) in an apartment in Donaghmede, Dublin, in October. The Somali turned 18, according to the dates he provided, on June 20th. Garda\u00ed believe he was an adult at the time of Davydenko\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

In a report to the D\u00e1il Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the department said that since the inception of the EU Migration and Asylum Pact earlier this month, it would be the determining authority for age assessments.<\/p>\n

Since January, in preparation for this arrangement coming into force, department officials have been conducting assessments at the point at which a young person seeks asylum. The numbers being deemed children and referred to Tusla have fallen by 60 per cent.<\/p>\n

Where unaccompanied minors are clearly children, they will be referred immediately to Tusla without undergoing age assessment.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Hiqa, PAC and legal professionals all voiced concerns around safety of child asylum seekers in Tusla\u2019s careOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe assessment will be multidisciplinary, carried out by trained staff of the department, supported by psychosocial professionals from a panel established for that purpose,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the event that the multidisciplinary assessment is inconclusive, the [legislation] provides that as a last resort, a medical examination may be carried out to determine age. Any medical examination must be performed with full respect for the applicant\u2019s dignity and in the least invasive manner possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore such an examination can be undertaken, the applicant must be informed in an age-appropriate manner and the applicant must consent to the examination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Age assessment decisions can be appealed.<\/p>\n

In other EU jurisdictions, medical assessments typically entail bone and teeth examinations and possibly X-rays. They were described as \u201ccontroversial\u201d last year in a paper from the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the University of Galway. <\/p>\n

CRA chief executive Tanya Ward said the alliance \u201cwould be very concerned if this is the direction age assessments are going\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a children\u2019s rights perspective this is an unnecessary interference in a child\u2019s bodily integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unaccompanied young asylum seekers whose age is disputed may face medical examinations \u201cas a last resort\u201d and where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[198461,9691,61,60,43,53],"class_list":["post-516359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-children-s-rights-alliance","tag-department-of-justice","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-tusla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}