The United Kingdom's Home Office is facing legal action amid worries that minors would be deported to Rwanda because staff incorrectly identify them as adults, The Observer reported.

Ministers are keen for aircraft to take off as soon as possible, with a record 181 Channel crossings recorded this year, and the government is expecting a rush of legal cases as a result of the commitment to deport some asylum seekers to the African nation.

The British government's contentious proposal to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda was approved by Parliament last month, over two years since its initial introduction.

It has now been revealed that it is being challenged about the handling of minors labeled as adults by immigration authorities following an initial evaluation of their physical appearance and behavior. Ministers guaranteed that no children would be deported to Rwanda once summer flights began.

The Home Office is being accused of pursuing an illegal strategy by seeking to deport people based only on an "initial cursory age decision" made by an officer. An organization with years of experience on the matter has produced a pre-action letter (a forerunner to legal action), noting that relying on such a limited evaluation is "wholly incompatible" with the government's claimed objective.

The government has two weeks to reply to the legal threat before the charity takes any further action. Some agencies have warned that they have noticed extremely serious mental health difficulties in youngsters who they fear may be in this situation.

Maddie Harris, director of the Humans for Rights Network, the organization behind the action, expressed that the government has "forced thousands of unaccompanied children into harm’s way, placing them in adult accommodation, camps, and adult prisons" as a result of their faltered policy, citing that they now face "extreme and additional threat" of forced removal.

Last year, Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, cited concerns about the process, explaining that those with disputed ages were "in fact shown to be children on further assessment."

“I am extremely concerned about the way age assessments are currently conducted when children first arrive – they happen very quickly and are not carried out by trained social workers as a full and thorough assessment would be,” she stated, explaining, “I have met children, living alone in hotels with adults, where a rushed assessment has somehow concluded they are an adult.”

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Last year, data from 70 local authorities revealed that minors accounted for 63% of referrals from young persons committed to adult accommodation or imprisonment. According to the legal letter, this corresponds to at least 867 children who were "exposed to significant risk of potential harm in unsafe adult accommodation or detention as a result of poor initial decision-making by immigration officials."

The Refugee Council also revealed that, in 2021, 94% of the 233 young persons referred to its assistance who were first classified as adults by immigration authorities were later discovered to be children. Questions concerning the matter have already been addressed in parliament. According to Labour MP Andrew Western, there are "numerous cases of children."

A Home Office spokesperson reportedly stated that the safety and welfare of children is taken "extremely seriously, and have been clear that they will not be sent to Rwanda. Many individuals arrive in the UK without documentary evidence and where there is doubt on someone’s age, they undergo an initial age assessment," citing that "the lawfulness of our policy on initial age assessments was recently endorsed by the supreme court.”

UK asylum seekers flee to Ireland amid Rwanda deportation threat

The Home Office is grappling with the escalating aftermath of its widely publicized crackdown on asylum seekers earmarked for deportation to Rwanda, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.

Some individuals have gone underground, while others have fled across the border to Ireland. The roundup of asylum seekers for the Rwanda plan commenced a week ago, leading to at least one person going on a hunger strike and another contemplating suicide, as per the report.

Despite the government's extensive communication regarding the detention of individuals bound for Rwanda, it remains uncertain whether officials foresaw the possibility of asylum seekers going into hiding or seeking refuge in Ireland.

Lou Calvey, the director of the charity Asylum Matters, said, as quoted by The Guardian, “Frontline asylum charities report people leaving their asylum accommodation in order to avoid arrest. They are raising the alarm about the increasing risks of destitution and exploitation.”

Asylum seekers who regularly attend reporting sessions at various centers across the UK have remarked on the unusually subdued atmosphere, noting that they have never experienced such quietness before.

A Belarusian man, who has been residing in the UK for over ten years, expressed his apprehension regarding potential arrest by the Home Office, despite not being included in the initial group slated for deportation — individuals who arrived between January 2022 and June 2023.

He said, as quoted by The Guardian, “I walked right in and didn’t have to queue at all. In all the years I’ve been reporting I’ve never seen it so deserted.” 

Another asylum seeker who has been served a notice of intent for deportation to Rwanda but has not yet been detained revealed that he has been receiving numerous calls from acquaintances within his community, advising him to go into hiding.