Sweden: New tests to help gauge asylum-seekers' age

By Elin Joensson

STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Sweden, after taking in nearly 163,000 asylum-seekers last year, is pioneering new tools to accurately gauge the age of unaccompanied migrants, and so their eligibility for benefits such as housing and free education.

At a news conference Friday, the Swedish national forensic medicine agency presented new tools for determining age, based on the human wisdom teeth and knee joints.

Age assessments “should be based on science, proven experience, the rule of law, and ethics,” Ann Lemne, manager of the age assessment project, told reporters.

Sweden’s migration authority has been testing the age of every registered asylum applicant, but these tests have been criticized as unreliable, leading to uncertainty over the age of the 70 percent of unaccompanied migrants claiming to be age 15-17.

Sweden has taken in more unaccompanied children and minors than any other European country, with 35,000 coming last year, according to the migration authority.

The assessments mean to clarify whether a person is over or under 18, which plays a major role when asylum-seekers are given a place to stay while their application is being processed, as well as their right to free education.

The age of migrants has previously also created problems for police when investigating crimes involving new arrivals in Sweden.

The government gave the directives to start a new age system for asylum-seekers, and it is estimated that some 4,000-18,000 examinations need to be done.

“Every X-ray will be assessed by two experts,” said Elias Palm, in charge of medicinal age assessments at the forensic agency. “For an assessment to be complete, the experts have to reach the same conclusion.”

On the new assessment tools, he said, “The reason why these two methods should be used is because the knee joint develops later in life and the teeth at an earlier stage. This will close the age gap in today’s calculations.”

The two examinations will be executed independently by MRI and dental clinics, and are set to start early next year.

Sweden’s rising immigrant population has led to estimates that the Nordic country’s population will soon hit 10 million.

Last year Sweden accepted 55% of the total number of asylum applications.