A child refugee who fled Iraq has won a three-year legal battle to prove he was only 16 when he arrived undocumented in the UK, not eight to 10 years older, as British officials claimed, citing his facial hair and broad shoulders. The Kurd, now 19, fled Iraq with his family in 2021 after death threats from Shia militia, who came into his home area around Kirkuk after the fall of Islamic State in northern Iraq and Syria. But he was separated from his parents and sister while changing vessels on a treacherous sea journey and, after landing by boat in Britain in the middle of the night, he was treated as an adult with an estimated age of 24 to 26 by the Home Office and the London Borough of Greenwich. It meant that as well as being separated from his loved ones, he was allocated accommodation with adult asylum seekers and he claimed to be suicidal and threatened to kill himself during one age assessment. He won his case against the council’s decision to treat him as an adult in the upper tribunal immigration and asylum chamber in February, when the judge found his claim of his age credible and that his father, who had worked for Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime, would plausibly have attracted an “adverse” interest from Shia militias. The boy also claimed he had his leg broken by the militia. In July the borough was refused leave to appeal against the ruling on his age. His lawyers have now spoken out about his case, which means he will now have access to social services support until he is at least 21. “Sadly, this is also not an isolated case and I cannot help but think that it is sometimes seen by local authorities with limited resources as a way to wriggle out of, or at least put off, providing the support and accommodation they are obliged to give child refugees,” said Edward Taylor, a partner at the law firm Osbornes, whorepresented the boy, who cannot be named. While Judge Norton-Taylor found the refugee was indeed the age he claimed, he was probably “aware that being a child required the authorities to provide accommodation and support”. Last year the number of unaccompanied children arriving in the UK and seeking asylum hit the highest level in at least 14 years, according to Home Office figures, with 7,373 cases considered, of which 1,475 were refused. Home Office guidance published this year tells officials to give the benefit of the doubt and to treat uncertain cases as children pending further consideration of their age. The boy told the tribunal that he had an identity card in Iraq and it said he was born on 15 January 2005 – making him 16 when he arrived. But when his age was assessed by officials on arrival in Kent, they found he had a deep voice, broad shoulders, a pronounced Adam’s apple, frown lines and significant facial hair. His appearance, they concluded “was so obvious in terms of age, that there is no doubt about his adulthood”. The council reckoned he was probably aged 24 to 26. The tribunal found his looks did not justify the council’s assessment. Another age check by trained Kent county council assessors in 2022 highlighted his “gentleman and adult-like behaviour, showing courtesy which can rarely be displayed by children younger in age”. The judge was asked to consider his “charm, charisma and forceful, argumentative demeanour”. But he found this was “often an unreliable indicator of age”. The boy – now a young man – has been learning English at Croydon College in south London and was discharged from child and adolescent mental health services in July 2022. The judge found that his threat to kill himself was more likely to have been a result of “emotional dysregulation and impulsive frustration” rather than “manipulative intent”. His application for asylum has, meanwhile, been refused and he is appealing against the decision. A spokesperson for the Royal Borough of Greenwich said: “We take our duties to children and those seeking asylum very seriously and we are proud to be recognised as a borough of sanctuary for all the work that we do. Although we cannot comment on individual cases, we have accepted the upper tier tribunal’s decision that was made on 13 February 2024 and have complied with and continue to comply with the decision.” The headline on this article was amended on 18 September 2024 because the original version inaccurately said the refugee was from Iran, rather than Iraq