Border officials said the Eritrean national had five o’clock shadow and eye wrinkles
The Eritrean migrant entered the UK in the back of a lorry (file photo) (Image: Getty)
A bearded migrant who entered the UK in the back of a lorry has been ruled to be a child in court. The male from Eritrea, who has not been named, had been blocked from entering the country multiple times and gave five different dates of birth to border officials.
Immigration authorities rejected the migrant‘s claim he is a child, noting his “protruding Adam’s apple, wrinkles under his eyes and five o’clock shadow”. An asylum judge has ruled at an immigration hearing that the Eritrean national was 16 when he came to the UK.
GB News also reported that the Home Office has been ordered to pay £10,000 to cover the migrant’s legal costs.
The broadcaster reports that the migrant left his native country after his mother died and was taken to Libya.
He travelled across Europe before reaching the north of France from where he made his first attempt to enter the UK in a lorry in February 2024.
But he was caught at the port of Dunkirk, giving border officials a different name and date of birth.
Three days later he was found in the back of another lorry and gave a different birth date and name.
He finally reached the UK a month later, giving officers another date of birth – April 2007 – which he repeated during his hearing. Immigration authorities assessed him as being born in April 1996.
Upper Tribunal judge, Gaenor Bruce, ruled he was a child when he came to the UK and should have been treated as one.
She reportedly described him as “sincere” and “cooperative”, disagreeing with claims he has a receding hairline or deep lines on his face.
The judge could not say if the Adam’s apple of a male born in 2007 would be more or less pronounced than someone born in 2005.
Judge Bruce accepted he has a “small neat beard” which he “sports quite proudly” and uses as his avatar on Snapchat.
She admitted not having prior knowledge of the rate hair grows in Eritrean males, adding that children mature “at wildly different rates”.
Ms Bruce, quoted by GB News, said: “It is entirely possible for boys as young as 15 to have fully established facial hair.”