Growing number of asylum applications by unaccompanied minors: 7 out of ten are over 18 years old

In recent months there was a sharp increase in the number of unaccompanied minors which petitioned Belgium for asylum. Of the 1,305 minors who applied for asylum until August, 733 applicants were subjected to an age assessment with a bone scan. In 506 of the examined cases (69%), the presumed minor appeared to have reached the age of majority. This is what MP Sarah Smeyers learnt from Theo Francken, State Secretary for Asylum and Migration. “He has since deployed additional resources to combat the abuse,” she notes with satisfaction.

“Often these youngsters simply do not know their age, because they come from countries where no birth certificate is drawn up,” Smeyers explains. “Unfortunately there are also a number of applicants who claim to be minors because they know that we do not send back minors and also offer them additional protection.”

State Secretary Francken has asked Fedasil, the Immigration Office  and the Guardianship Service of the Ministry of Justice  work together in a coordinated manner, to keep the investigation period as short as possible. Before the large influx of asylum seekers, the results of a bone scan were ready after 21 days. Now this process only takes nine days. “It is nice to know that even in times of crisis the state secretary focuses on combating possible abuses to prevent an additional inflow of alleged minors,” according to Smeyers.