Home Office refuses to say if it will investigate to claims 'child migrant' from Calais Jungle is 22-year-old

Refugees: France wants the UK to take Calais Jungle child migrants.
Getty Images
Francesca Gillett30 October 2016

The Home Office is refusing to say if it will investigate claims one of the 'child refugees' brought to Britain from the Calais Jungle is actually 22 years old.

Haris Stanikzai told officials he was 16 when he was brought to the UK last week as one of the first groups of child migrants to be given sanctuary.

He had no passport or birth certificate and was taken to south London to live with his uncle Jan Ghazi. The Home Office issued him with a date of birth of January 1, 1999 – making him 17.

But the government is facing accusations the supposed teenager is in fact a 22-year-old following an investigation of his social media accounts.

Enrolled: Haris Stanikzai 's LinkedIn profile said he enrolled at university in 2013.
LinkedIn.

The investigation, led by the Sunday Times, suggested Mr Stanikzai stated on his LinkedIn profile he had enrolled at a university in Afghanistan more than three years ago.

He was also found with an account on dating website called Meet People where he claims he is aged 22, it reported, and in other photos posted online is shown with a beard.

His page on business networking site LinkedIn says he enrolled at Jahan University in 2013, meaning he would have just been 13 when he took his degree course if his claim of being 16 is correct.

The Jungle refugee was brought to London from Calais on October 17 as part of an initiative allowing migrants with relatives in Britain to join them.

The Home Office said the group were boys aged 14 to 17.

The Sunday Times said it contacted officials at Jahan University who confirmed Mr Stanikzai had enrolled for a degree over three years ago.

The official said Mr Stanikzai was “under-18” when he started the business administration BA course.

However Mr Ghazi, 37, said there had been a “big misunderstanding” about his nephew’s academic credentials.

The Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases and would be unlikely to be releasing a comment in response to the accusations.

A spokeswoman said French and UK officials interview refugees who do not have documentation and look at physical appearance and demeanour to determine their age

The Home Office then assigns them a date of birth of January 1 and then a year following interviews while awaiting further information about the individual’s age.

French officials have said the UK has so far received 274 migrants but the country wants Britain to take in more than 1,000 children from Calais.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in