Care4Calais accused of helping adult migrants challenge age assessments

A British asylum charity repeatedly tried to persuade judges that lying adult migrants were children, a Telegraph investigation has found.

Care4Calais, which distributes clothing, tents and food to migrants in northern France, supported balding and wrinkled asylum seekers who claimed to be under 18, helping them challenge Home Office assessments that they were adults.

The Telegraph uncovered a series of cases in which the charity helped migrants dispute official assessments of their age.

In one case, a Sudanese man in his 20s was placed in children’s accommodation after Care4Calais referred him to a local council.

Immigration courts later rejected such claims, finding that those involved had tried to deceive the authorities to gain the “advantages” of being treated as a child asylum seeker. These include access to school places and council accommodation rather than hotels used to house adult asylum seekers.

Responding to The Telegraph’s investigation, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, called for Care4Calais to be investigated by the Charity Commission.

“If male illegal immigrants in their 20s get away with pretending to be under 18 and are then placed with teenage girls in schools, the risks are obvious,” he said.

“Care4Calais’ activity is borderline illegal and certainly not charitable. Care4Calais actively supports illegal immigration, and the Charity Commission should investigate them and shut them down.”

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Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman, accused Care4Calais of “aiding and abetting the mass invasion of unvetted males into Britain”.

A spokesman for Care4Calais defended the charity’s work and said “the real scandal” was cases in which child migrants were incorrectly judged to be adults by the state.

“Care4Calais is a humanitarian charity that distributes aid to people who have fled war, torture and persecution,” the spokesman said.

“In respect of age dispute casework, these cases are judged via a legal process according to UK law. Any accusation of illegal activities, whether said by a politician or published by a media outlet, is not only untrue, it is grossly defamatory and it is the sort of misinformation that puts the safety of charity staff and volunteers at risk.”

In one case, in March this year, an Ethiopian migrant with “a receding hairline” was backed by a Care4Calais volunteer in claiming to be 17, but was found by a judge to be 22.

The unnamed asylum seeker crossed the Channel in a small boat in March last year and applied for asylum in Britain as a 17-year-old.

A volunteer from Care4Calais helped him apply tobring a judicial review against West Northamptonshire county council, which later assessed his age to be 24.

The volunteer said she believed asylum seeker’s claims to be 17 because he “does not like making decisions” and had asked her partner “how to shave”.

In a statement given to the immigration court, she expressed her “belief that his demeanour and physical development (including facial hair) are consistent with that of a teenage boy rather than someone in their 20s”.

The judgment reads:

Judge Sarah Grey, however, rejected the asylum seeker’s claim to be a child and ruled that he was 22 when he came to Britain. His asylum claim had not yet been decided.

Comments on his appearance were:

The judge said his claims were “inconsistent and untruthful”, adding: “I find that the applicant has made a conscientious effort to mislead the authorities to secure the perceived benefits from being an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child.”

Home Office figures show that 6,255 asylum seekers had their age disputed in cases closed in the year ending this March. Of these, 43 per cent were found to be adults despite claiming to be children, while 57 per cent were assessed as children.

Unaccompanied children who claim asylum are also more likely to receive refugee status. Last year, 62 per cent were approved, compared with the overall approval rate of 42 per cent.

In another immigration tribunal case, in March 2024, Care4Calais helped a Sudanese small boat migrant with “established wrinkles” and “a pronounced Adam’s apple” after immigration authorities judged him to be 28.

The unnamed migrant had claimed to be 17 upon arrival in Dover and was then given children’s accommodation in Portsmouth after he was referred to Hampshire county council by Care4Calais.

“Five days later [after his arrival], on 26 March, 2024, the applicant was referred to the respondent by the charity Care4Calais,” the judgment reads. “The respondent made an initial assessment and decided to accommodate the applicant as a child.”

In July that year,the council reassessed his age and decided he was 25. Three months later, his asylum claim was rejected by the Home Office.

The migrant then applied to bring a legal challenge against the council for classing him as an adult, but this was rejected at an immigration tribunal in September last year by Judge Luke Bulpitt, who ruled that he was 20 when he crossed the Channel.

Judge Bulpitt said the migrant had “not given a credible account of his age”, adding: “Whilst I recognise that people tell lies for different reasons, the applicant’s willingness to conceal and to mislead about his age if he considers it advantageous to do so is clear and it significantly undermines the claims about his age he made to me.”

In September 2023, Care4Calais made a “safeguarding referral” after an Eritrean small boat migrant was placed in an adult asylum hotel when his claim to be 16 was rejected by the Home Office.

This prompted social workers to visit the migrant, but again he was assessed to be over 18.

After he applied to bring a judicial review last January, Soraya Reeds, an immigration judge, rejected his claim to be a child and ruled that he was in fact 19 upon entering Britain.

And in 2022, Care4Calais put a Sudanese migrant who had arrived from Calais in touch with “solicitors to challenge his age assessment” after the Home Office and a London council rejected his claims to be a child. A judge later ruled he was 21 when he came to Britain.

Judges have also found in favour of other migrants supported by Care4Calais who were wrongly assessed as adults when they were actually children.

On a visit to Calais, The Telegraph also found that several charities were offering comprehensive advice to migrants on the age assessment process and their rights if they were found to be children.

Care4Calais has a dedicated age dispute team, which helps migrants challenge age assessments when they are judged to be adults. According to the charity’s most recent annual report, from 2025, 312 migrants signed up for help with challenging age assessments that year.

Migrants are directed to the help team via a “new arrival guide” posted around Calais and Dunkirk and circulated among migrants via mobile phones in a variety of languages.

Produced by L’Auberge des Migrants, a French charity, the new arrival guide says Care4Calais provides “support with access to legal services in the UK” and directs readers to its website, which explains the work of its “age dispute team”.

The Telegraph was shown the guide by migrants, who said it told them “how to explain yourself” when claiming asylum in Britain.

Malek Baker, a 26-year-old Palestinian refugee barber, said he came to Calais after fleeing Gaza in November 2023 when his parents, Ghassan and Somia, died in an Israeli air strike.

Holding an Arabic version of the guide, he said: “[It’s] about France and the UK. Here [in France], about when the police catch you, when you’re on the boat how to be safe, how to get food, how to get the organisations’ support, to charge your phone. How to get a shower.

“And another way, in England, when you get there, [it says] you will meet the first interview and how to explain yourself and introduce yourself. And after that when you go to the hotel and how to be safe. How to be good, things like this.

“They talk about the second interview. You must be serious when you’re talking with the cop there. Be honest when you say your story and give your real nationality.”

Mr Baker made it clear that he would be truthful with the authorities and say that he was an adult if he crossed the Channel.

Mohamed Moghader, 25, said he was grateful for the guide, adding: “I learned from it. The information is very useful.”

The Sudanese refugee said he was aware that other migrants claimed to be children when they were in fact adults, but vowed to tell the truth if he made it to Britain.

“I am 25, but I have no idea about the rest,” he added.

In August, it emerged that Vodafone had given 2,500 sim cards, loaded with six months of free data, to Care4Calais for distribution among migrants who had arrived in Britain on small boats.

The charity said migrants needed phones “to keep in contact with family and friends, and access support”.

It previously opposed French plans to intercept people smugglers guiding small boats at sea, and in 2022 launched the first legal challenge to the Tories’ Rwanda deportation plan.

Care4Calais’ arrivals guide also directs migrants to three other British charities that help with challenging incorrect age assessments.

It tells readers to visit the New Arrivals to the UK page on the Refugee Legal Support website.

The site has a section on age assessments where a document can be downloaded that says anyone incorrectly deemed to be an adult should “contact Humans for Rights Network”, a “specialist organisation who help children who are wrongly treated as adults in the UK”.

The new arrivals guide also refers to a “toolkit” from a fourth charity, Right to Remain, which is described as “a free, step-by-step guide to the UK asylum and immigration system, available in many languages”. It explains how to challenge an incorrect age assessment.

A spokesman for Care4Calais said: “The Government’s own data shows that almost 60 per cent of age disputes are found to be children. That number rises to 72 per cent when the Home Office is not the decision-maker, and the age disputes assessment is independently carried out by professional social workers working for local authorities.

“Our legal access department is a casework service that helps people seeking asylum access justice by signposting them to secure legal representation. Citing four age dispute cases, dating as far back as 2022, when 72 per cent of local authority social work decisions are that the person is a child, does not call into question our age dispute casework – it shows the value of it.

“Rather than politically motivated attacks on charities, Conservative and Reform politicians should use their time to investigate the influence of the Government’s direct involvement in age dispute decisions given the clear disparity in the outcome of independent local authority decisions in comparison to those that the Home Office are involved in.

“Wrongly declaring an asylum-seeking child an adult is a child protection issue, that also denies that child the right to an education – that’s the real scandal.”

The Charity Commission said it would assess Care4Calais’s support for the migrants who falsely claimed to be children.

“We will assess the information provided to determine what, if any, role there is for the Charity Commission as regulator,” said a spokesman.

“We have made no findings at this time, and have not opened a regulatory compliance case or statutory inquiry.”

L’Auberge des Migrants, Refugee Legal Support, Humans for Rights Network and Right to Remain were also approached for comment.