The end of dental X-rays in age assessments

Friday 10 November 2017

Maria Moodie and Silvia Nicolaou Garcia chart the rise and fall of dental X-rays as a means of assessing the age of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

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Long dismissed by many as unethical, recent cases have sounded the death knell for the use of dental X-rays as a means of assessing the age of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Maria Moodie of Garden Court Chambers and Silvia Nicolaou Garcia of Simpson Millar chart their rise and fall.

The use of dental X-rays to assess the age of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children has been a pivotal issue before the Court of Appeal and the Upper Tribunal (UT) in recent months. Read the full article, linked below, for an analysis of the key cases and developments that have now culminated in this approach to assessing age being discredited and rejected as unreliable. It is the authors' view that dental age assessments (DAAs) no longer have a role to play in assisting social workers or judges to determine an individual's age.

Read the full article in the Legal Action Group Magazine (November 2017 edition).

See related:

Age assessment: dental assessments, appearance and the benefit of the doubt, Tessa Buchanan, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers

 

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