Age disputes and credibility of unaccompanied minors in the Danish asylum system
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2017
Submitted on
2017-10-30
Pages
60
Abstract
An increasing part of the world's refugees are unaccompanied minors. Being a child in the asylum system triggers some specific legal rights and entitlements, and has led some young asylum-seeking adults to portray themselves as minors. As a result, age assessment has become an integral part of asylum systems. Consequently, unaccompanied minors are increasingly struggling to establish credibility of their asylum claim. In asylum cases of unaccompanied minors in Denmark, the main evidence for credibility is collected through age assessment. The procedure for age assessment in the Danish asylum system consists of medical examinations of physical maturity, skeletal development, and dental development. However, within various academic fields, radiological methods have been debated in terms of scientific validity, and their capability to determine a specific chronological age. From a structural perspective, this thesis analyses the connection between age disputes, age assessment procedures, and credibility in the Danish asylum system.
Keywords
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