A consortium of human rights groups has called for the ‘adversarial’ migrant age assessment body to be closed. Over 100 charities and refugee support groups have said the National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) lacks objectivity and transparency, and have derided the double standards between the body and local authorities.
The board is responsible for supporting local authorities in assessing the age of asylum seekers where there is a dispute as to whether they are under 18. Wrongly assessing children as adults places them in adult accommodation and puts them at risk.
The consortium criticises flawed assessments, the fact that the majority of assessments miss the 28-day time limit, and the undermining of local authority judgments. Recent High Court and tribunal judgments have also found errors in the way assessments were conducted and an unfair approach to assessing the credibility of the child. The group of charities criticises the ‘double standard’ whereby the Home Office penalises authorities who make decisions about refugees’ ages outside of a 28 day time limit, yet decisions made by the NAAB take, on average, over 54 days.
The group has also highlighted that children said they felt officials were ‘out to get them’, and viewed the assessments as hostile, ‘combative and adversarial’. They identify that this process is ‘far more severe and traumatic’ than a local authority-led assessment and increases risks of deteriorating mental health that leads to self-harm.
A previous report by the same Consortium, published in March 2025, found that in just a six-month period, between January to June 2024, 262 children had been wrongly assessed and placed at risk in adult accommodation. Children as young as 14 were placed in hotels or detention and forced to share rooms with adults. They could also be wrongly held in adult prisons if they are charged with offences relating to their journey into the UK.
An independent inspection for the Home Office in 2025 also called for improvement to assessments and to the training of those making age assessments.
Kama Petruczenko, the Refugee Council’s senior policy analyst, said that ‘because NAAB sits inside the Home Office, immigration control and safeguarding are blurred. Children need independent, child-centred, trauma-informed assessments led by local authorities, not adversarial processes that compound existing problems.’
A Home Office spokesperson defended the Board’s role, described it as ‘vital for safeguarding and border security’ and that ‘all assessments are carried out by qualified social workers following nationally recognised guidance’.
