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A third wave of 'child' migrants arrived in Britain from the Calais Jungle today - but the Home Office refused to carry out dental checks to prove their real age.
Around 12 migrants - all burly lads aged anywhere between 15 and 21 - were escorted off a coach and taken inside a Home Office building, before being released.
It came as the row over the age of migrants intensified after officials revealed two-thirds of 'child' refugees quizzed about their age last year were found to be adults.
At least 100 more child migrants are expected to arrive in the UK by Friday - to join the three coachloads that have already made the journey to London this week.
But the Home Office ruled out calls for dental checks to verify their age because the tests are deemed 'inaccurate, inappropriate and unethical'.
A third wave of 'child' migrants arrived in Britain from the Calais Jungle today - but the Home Office refused to carry out dental checks to prove their real age
Around 12 migrants - all burly lads aged anywhere between 15 and 21 - were escorted off a coach
David Davies, the Conservative MP for Monmouth, had called for dental investigations or X-rays to establish the age of refugees coming to the UK.
And former home secretary Jack Straw also threw his weight behind the idea, saying the lack of testing was undermining public confidence in Britain's asylum system.
Concerns were raised about the possibility of migrants trying to 'deceive' authorities after pictures of the group arriving on Monday showed many looked older than 17.
The 12-strong group that arrived on Wednesday was greeted by raucous supporters.
The coach pulled up to Lunar House, a 20-storey office block in Croydon, at around 12.30pm after leaving Calais at 7.30am.
The all-male group were escorted in batches of two at a time as the crowds clapped and cheered their arrival in the UK.
The group that arrived on Wednesday was greeted by raucous supporters
Ahmed Sharaf (left) and Muhammad Alkharbajieh (right) were seen celebrating after the arrival
Safe Passage, the migrant arm of charity Citizen UK, has been identifying children in the camp
They underwent checks before being collected by relatives or released into foster care.
Only two refugees remained inside the immigration centre this evening as they waited for family members to arrive.
The refugee who moved Lily Allen to tears when she visited the Calais Jungle was among the group.
Shamsher Sherin, 13, spoke to Lily during a BBC interview to highlight the plight of children living alone in the squalid camp.
A third group of 'child' refugees are on their way to Britain after being loaded into a minivan in Saint Omer, in Calais, France
Lily, 31, shared the news with her 5.87 million followers on Twitter.
She tweeted: 'So happy to see that Sham Sher made it to the U.K. safely and won't be risking his life jumping on to moving vehicle.'
Ahmed Sharaf, 17, was waiting outside Lunar House for his cousin Khalid Sharaf as he arrived in Croydon from the Jungle camp.
He said: 'My cousin has just arrived on the bus. He is 17 from Syria, we are all from Syria, he is also 17.
'I have been here four months and now live in Wembley with my brother, who came here two-and-a-half years ago.
'My mother and father are still in Daraa in Syria. It is very dangerous and I'm very worried for their safety. I'm very happy my cousin is able to join us. We were worried it might not happen.
'I was in the Jungle for a year and my cousin was there for seven months. It is very bad there. The worst part is the police beat us and there is a lot of fighting going on.'
Khalid's friend Muhammad Alkharbajieh, who has been in the UK and lives with Ahmed for two months, was also waiting outside when he received a call from his friend who was inside the building.
He said: 'He is fine, he is very happy. I'm very happy to be in here and very happy my friend is also here.
The 13-year-old reduced the singer to tears during a BBC interview to highlight the plight of unaccompanied children living in the squalid Jungle camp
This afternoon Allen tweeted: 'So happy to see that Sham Sher made it to the U.K. safely and won't be risking his life jumping on to moving vehicles'
'I came here from Calais, I left Syria and went to Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, then Belgium.
'We were both brought here by the UN. I just want to have productive life in the UK, I go to school and want to be a social worker.'
Abdul Kader, a Syrian refugee who quit Syrian leader Bashir Al-Assad's army to escape the war, was also in the crowd greeting the new arrivals.
But he said he no longer want to be in Britain, adding: 'I want to deport myself.
'I would tell those arriving from Calais to go back. It is better there than it is here.
'I want to go back to Syria. In this county I cannot work, I have nowhere to live, I Iive in hotels.
'I was a Captain Doctor in the army, but I left when they started the war. I cannot kill civilians.
'I was put in jail, then I fled to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, then Greece, then to Germany.'
Yesterday the 14 youngsters who arrived in the UK were taken to temporary foster homes, where they will stay until social workers have interviewed their British-based relatives to ensure their homes are safe for them to live in.
Mohammed and Ahmad, both 17, from Daraa in Syria, said their friend Khaled only found out yesterday that he was being brought to the UK to stay with his cousin.
Citizens UK said he will 'almost certainly' stay with a social carer or foster carer for a night or two before they are reunited with his family, in a part of London.
Reuben Martin, pastor of West Croydon Baptist Church, a member of Citizens UK, said each unaccompanied child refugee is being accompanied by a member of the charity who act as chaperones while they are being processed.
Tensions flared when the Home Office revealed that nearly two-thirds of child refugees quizzed about their real age last year were found to be adults.
In the 12 months to September last year, 65 per cent were found to be aged over 18.
The figures show the scale of how adult migrants try to deceive the UK authorities in a bid to be granted sanctuary.
They emerged after Tory MPs raised questions about the ages of 28 refugees brought to the UK this week from the Calais Jungle.
Yesterday, one migrant in particular, wearing a blue hoodie with stubble on his chin, was rated by a facial recognition program as having the features of a 38-year-old.
'I WOULD RATHER GO BACK TO ALEPPO THAN STAY HERE'
Syrian doctor Abdul Kader al-Zuebi
Abdul Kader al-Zuebi, a Syrian doctor supporting the new arrivals from Calais, has offered a warning to those seeking permission to live in the UK - saying he would rather return to Aleppo than stay in Britain any longer.
The 28-year-old, a qualified doctor who has three British relatives and a British fiancee, said his short time in the UK had been miserable due to Home Office delays which he said made it difficult for him to rent or seek employment as a medic.
He said: 'It is a big lie to be in the UK, we think the UK is something from the heavens.
'I am living in hotels for the last 11 days, I can't go anywhere. The Home Office are refusing to let me leave. They don't know where my passport is.
'I wanted to come here, I have three British uncles and am engaged to a British lady. They (Home Office) took me from the airport, to a hostel in Dulwich, after four days they took me to a miserable place in Cardiff.
'So I chose to go to hotels. I asked to rent a house, they refused. I didn't ask for money just papers to be legal but they didn't.
'I would rather be back in Aleppo than stay here. Honestly, I want to go back.'
He was one of 14 to be bussed to Croydon from the notorious Jungle camp shanty town before it is demolished by the French authorities.
The first female child refugee, a teenager from Eritrea, was also part of the group.
They followed another set who arrived on Monday, as Britain works to reunite unaccompanied youngsters from war-torn countries with family members in the UK.
A Home Office spokesman refused to confirm how many child refugees were due to arrive in Britain today, or whether any were female.
Asked if Prime Minister Theresa May had 'faith' in the age verification being carried out, her official spokeswoman said: 'There are a whole range of checks in place which the Home Office and Border Force are using in cooperation with partners.'
Former Home Secretary Jack Straw today backed calls for child refugees to be subject to age tests.
He said the large number of over-18 migrants deceiving authorities by posing as children will 'undermine public confidence' in Britain's asylum system.
Mr Straw said there was also a problem with the number of economic migrants pretending to be refugees and said the best way to deal with the migrant crisis is to house them nearer to their country of origin.
He told Sky News: 'Officials made a judgment, we have to accept that judgment, but if there is a case for dental checks, I would certainly not as Home Secretary have ruled that out.
'What I would say to those supporting increase in numbers of refugees to come to this country is this. If it turns out those coming in here are over 18 - and the truth will emerge after a while - then it will undermine public confidence in the whole system.
'So having tests, providing they are not too intrusive and invasive is actually a sensible thing to do for everyone concerned.'
He added: 'Most of them are economic migrants and you have to be pretty firm about this.
'Part of the problem with the issue of whether they are children is you have got to test their age because you will understandably always get quite a lot of people who, knowing that it's easier to get in because they are younger will pretend they are under 18 when they are not.
'My own view is that the best place to deal with refugees is near to their country of origin.
The youngsters have been bussed to Croydon from the notorious Jungle camp shanty town
Tory MP David Davies has been condemned by dentists after last night calling for tests on teeth to verify the age of child migrants
REVEALED: FATHER OF CHILD REFUGEE WHO MADE LILY ALLEN CRY IS AN EX-ISLAMIST FIGHTER LIVING IN BIRMINGHAM
It emerged last week that the father of the migrant boy controversially championed by Lily Allen sneaked into Britain in the back of a lorry to claim asylum.
The Mail on Sunday also revealed how he then returned to the country he fled in terror for a three-month holiday after being given the right to stay here.
Hazrat Gul Sherin, whose son Shamsher appeared with the tearful pop star last week as she 'apologised' on behalf of Britain for bombing his country and putting him 'in the hands of the Taliban', came to the UK illegally in 2005, having fled war-torn Afghanistan.
Hazrat Gul Sherin, father of the Afghani boy who moved pop star Lily Allen to tears, was loyal to a brutal warlord and fled to the UK to claim asylum - on the back of a lorry
His decision to flee the country was prompted not by the Taliban but because as a leading supporter of a brutal Islamist warlord – and an officer in his private army – he was afraid of the US and UK-backed Northern Alliance.
After seven years, Sherin was given indefinite leave to remain in the UK, then promptly returned to Afghanistan to visit his family.
The 49-year-old was a commander in the Islamist group Hezb-e Islami, led by the Butcher of Kabul, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Picture of Shamsher Sherin, who Lily allen apologised to on behalf of the whole UK, taken in Afghanistan ten years ago with his father Hazrat Gul Sherin and his sister
In the early 1990s, Hekmatyar's group of fundamentalist Sunni Muslim Pashtuns clashed violently with other mujahideen factions in the struggle for control of the capital, Kabul.
Hezb-e Islami was blamed for much of the terrible death and destruction of that period and was accused of appalling human rights abuses, including the assassination of intellectuals and throwing acid in women's faces.
The civil war led to Hekmatyar's fall from grace and he quickly became one of the most reviled men in the country. And in 1996, when Hekmatyar went into exile, Sherin also began to lead a quieter life.
Shamsher Sherin, aged 13 pictured having a brief telephone conversation with his father Hazrat Gul Sherin in Birmingham. He has never heard of Lily Allen
He revealed the startling truth behind his journey to the UK in an interview with The Mail on Sunday. To reach Britain, he hiked across eight countries before being stowed away by traffickers in a fruit lorry.
He spent seven years living on benefits in Birmingham before his claim for asylum was accepted in September 2012. He then went back to Afghanistan, flying in via Pakistan, for the first of two three-month visits to the very country that had put him in fear of his life.
After 11 years in the UK, he can barely speak English.
'Some of those who are at Calais are genuine refugees but an awful lot are economic migrants.
'Our international obligations are to people who have a well-founded fear of persecution from the State from which they come.'
Elsewhere, Tory MP David Davies has been condemned by dentists after last night calling for tests on teeth to verify the age of child migrants.
Meanwhile, official figures show that in the year ending September 2015, some 590 asylum applicants had their age disputed. Of those, 574 had an age assessment – with 371 were found to be adults.
Since 2006 there have been 11,121 age disputes. Of those, 4,828 – or 43 per cent – were found to have been adults.
Safe Passage, the migrant arm of charity Citizen UK, has been identifying children in the Jungle. Sources say it insists on seeing a document which states the names, ages and addresses of their relatives plus evidence such as family pictures.
Migrants are then interviewed by a psychologist who reports to the Home Office, which conducts more checks before they are allowed to cross the Channel.
There was a welcome party for the migrant children arriving from the Jungle camp in France
Two teenagers arrive at Lunar House in Croydon, south London, from the Calais Jungle camp
However, it has emerged the Home Office has no way of verifying the migrants' ages before they come to Britain, stoking concerns about adults posing as children to take advantage of the scheme.
Officials insist the migrants have undergone rigorous interviews and document checks to establish they are aged under 18.
But it has emerged that this is simply a screening process where they are verified as a child based on their 'physical appearance' and 'demeanour', with social workers signing off an 'age assessment'.
A Home Office spokesman admitted that routine medical tests, such as checking dental records, have not been carried out because it could be 'intrusive'.
They added that children may appear older 'because war has toughened them up'.
The spokesman said: 'We work closely with the French authorities and their partner agencies to ensure all those who come to the UK from the camps in Calais are eligible under the Dublin regulations.
'All individuals are referred to the UK authorities by the France terre d'asile (FTDA) and are then interviewed by French and UK officials.
'Where credible and clear documentary evidence of age is not available, criteria including physical appearance and demeanour are used as part of the interview process to assess age.'
Britain is taking in dozens of youngsters from war zones including Afghanistan, Syria and Sudan.
As unaccompanied children, they are entitled to move to the UK under EU asylum law if they have families in Britain.
But the Home Office does not begin rigorous verification of their claimed ages until after they arrive in Britain, charity workers have told the Mail.
Until then, UK officials largely rely on checks made by charities working in the Jungle.
Today a group of child refugees were loaded into a minivan ahead of their journey from Calais
All smiles: Child migrants are loaded into a van in Saint Omer ahead of their journey to Britain
Figures: In the 12 months to September last year, 65 per cent were found to be aged over 18
But after the blue-clad migrant's photograph was widely published online yesterday, some wondered about his age.
Analysis of his picture by Microsoft's face recognition program How Old Do I Look? suggested he had the facial features of a 38-year-old, although the software company cautioned it was just an estimate.
A spokesman said: 'How-old.net was designed to be an example of how developers could build a fun app using modern development practices. It is not intended to be used as a definitive assessment of age.'
And Dr Ross Perry, medical director of the Harley Street skin clinic Cosmedics, said: 'It is very difficult to assess someone's age based on just one photograph, but I would guess he is late 30s to early 40s.
'The wrinkles around the eyes are the tell-tale sign, and the loss of volume in the cheeks.
'He doesn't look like a child. But then if he has been living in a war zone, it could well have aged him prematurely, and it is impossible to know without meeting him.'
It comes as it was revealed nearly two-thirds of those quizzed about their real age last year were found to be adults, according to the Home Office
A third batch of 'child' refugees are on their way to Britain after getting into a van in France
Shamsher is interviewed on BBC2's Victoria Derbyshire show before leaving France for Britain
THE BOY WHO LEFT LILY ALLEN IN TEARS: SHAMSHER'S STORY
Shamsher Sherin, the teenage refugee in Calais Lily Allen apologised to in the Jungle
Shamsher Sherin left Afghanistan about nine months ago and began a gruelling six-month trek halfway across the globe.
He walked most of the journey, but he also used about £5,400 to take buses, motorbikes and cars as he travelled through Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Austria and Italy before finally arriving in France three months ago.
The teenager was one of between 800 and 1,000 unaccompanied children in the shantytown left facing an uncertain future when it is bulldozed this month.
'I'm so worried about that,' he previously said. 'Where will we go?'
Shamsher said his father, Hazrat Gul Sherin, went on ahead of him to set up a home for the family, and now lives in Birmingham.
But in the chaos of escaping Afghanistan he said he lost contact with his whole family.
Shamsher had admitted that due to hold-ups in the process of applying to move to the UK he had also tried to jump on lorries to get to Britain.
He said: 'Life here is very hard. It is very cold, especially at night.
'I hope I can make it to England as soon as possible.'
Allen's apology for the nation to Shamsher, broadcast on BBC2's Victoria Derbyshire programme last week, prompted a wave of negative comments online.
She said: 'It just seems that at three different intervals in this young boy's life, the English in particular have put you in danger.'
But some viewers claimed her apology was 'ridiculous'.
Richard Hughes tweeted: 'You should be ashamed of yourself, apologising on behalf of a nation and its people. Just who the hell do you think you are?'
As he left the immigration centre in Croydon last night, the migrant in the blue hoodie was clutching a piece of paper entitled: 'Application for biometric resident permit.'
The 14 youngsters were taken to temporary foster homes, where they will stay until social workers have interviewed their British-based relatives to ensure their homes are safe for them to live in.
Last night Tory MP David Davies said: 'This is just a joke. Some of these people are clearly not children, they're not even young men.
'This one has got lines around his eyes, lines on his face and what appears to be flecks of grey in his hair.
The singer's comments provoked a backlash
'There is no way of knowing if someone is a child. We could end up causing even more misery if we are not careful. We should invite anyone who wants to come to the UK to take dental tests.'
Mr Davies was condemned by dentists after calling for tests on teeth to verify the age of child migrants.
The British Dental Association (BDA) said demands by the Monmouth MP for testing on those heading to Britain from the Jungle refugee camp were 'inappropriate and unethical'.
Mr Davies, chairman of the Commons Welsh Affairs Select Committee, said mandatory dental checks would reassure the public the system was not being exploited.
But a BDA spokesman said: 'We are vigorously opposed to the use of dental X-rays to determine whether asylum seekers have reached 18.
'It's not only an inaccurate method for assessing age, but it is both inappropriate and unethical to take radiographs of people when there is no health benefit for them.
'X-rays taken for a clinically justified reason must not be used for another purpose without the patient's informed consent, without coercion and in full knowledge of how the radiograph will be used and by whom.'
Doctors of the World, which works in Calais, condemned Mr Davies's stance as 'unethical, inappropriate and divisive' and called for disciplinary action to be taken against the MP.
Leigh Daynes, the charity's executive director, said: 'It's as unethical as it is inappropriate to expect healthcare workers to conduct tests on patients for immigration enforcement purposes.
'Health staff are not border guards; and in any event such tests have been shown to be unreliable.'
She added: 'Such is the seriousness of Mr Davies's unethical and divisive remarks that we are asking his party chairman to consider disciplinary action.'
Former Home Secretary Jack Straw backed calls for child refugees to be subject to age tests
Two children, one in a black jacket and another in a light blue hooded top, are pictured left arriving in the UK from a migrant camp yesterday. Right is a migrant involved in the age row
Mr Davies defended his stance, saying the authorities should not be 'naive' about the issue of adults trying to get into the UK.
He said refugees who had been through an ordeal to reach the UK would not be concerned about having their age checked.
'We must not be naive about this. It's no good Lily Allen turning up with tears in her eyes and all the rest of it - we need to be quite hard-nosed here,' he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
'People are desperate, I understand that, and they will say what they need to say to get in.
'When I was in the camp in Calais there were caravans with notices on saying 'Come here, we will coach you in what to say to get into the UK'.'
This is just a joke. Some of these people are clearly not children, they're not even young men
Tory MP David Davies
He added: 'People in Britain, I think, want to help children but we don't want to be taken for a free ride either by people who seem to have got to the front of the queue even though they clearly look, in some cases, a lot older than 18.'
Mr Davies also said he did not accept that it was 'intrusive' to take an X-ray of a migrant.
The Jungle refugee camp could be closed imminently after a French court rejected an appeal from aid groups to delay the clearance.
French authorities are expected to empty the migrant camp in Calais in the coming weeks and dismantle it by the start of winter.
A Lille court has rejected a request from aid groups to postpone the closure, arguing that authorities are not ready to relocate its residents.
Charity groups warned that many of the migrants do not want to stay in France and may set up camp elsewhere to continue trying to cross the English Channel to Britain.
The French interior and housing ministers welcomed the court's ruling and said the camp should be dismantled before winter sets in.
'I think you're making a series of sneering fatuous little points': Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan hits out at Tory MP David Davies as the pair clash over the 'child' refugee age row
Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan was today involved in a furious spat with a Tory MP over what he called the 'demonisation' of child refugees.
In an angry exchange with David Davies, the presenter said there was 'a whiff of unpleasant racism and anti-foreigner-ism' about the migrant age row.
The Monmouth MP had been quoted as saying 14 teenagers who arrived in the UK from Calais on Monday 'don't look like 'children', and called for dental checks to verify their age.
Clash: Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan was today involved in a furious spat with Tory MP David Davies over what he called the 'demonisation' of child refugees
But a seething Piers, 51, told him: 'Who are you to decide that these very impoverished people who've been through an absolutely hellish time - and are coming to this country in actually comparatively small numbers to what I feel our country's moral duty is to these people.
'And all your response is, 'uh, I don't think they're the right. age. Let's check their teeth'.'
Mr Davies, 46, had defended his position, saying: 'I don't think it's in the least bit intrusive to do a short X-ray on somebody, particularly if you're saying you want to help.
'I want to help young children. Certainly charities seem to have given the impression that there are very young children who need our help, and not quite the hulking young adults who seem to be coming over.'
Difference of opinion: In an angry exchange with Mr Davies, the presenter said there was 'a whiff of unpleasant racism and anti-foreigner-ism' about the migrant age row
The Monmouth MP had been quoted as saying 14 teenagers who arrived in the UK from Calais on Monday 'don't look like 'children', and called for dental checks to verify their age
In response, Piers said: 'These hulking young adults have come from war-torn countries, wars that this country helped create in some cases, desperately in need of help.
'Whether they're five, 10, 15, 20 or 25… there's a whiff of very unpleasant racism and anti-foreigner-ism about this, going 'look at him, check his teeth', 'how old is this asylum seeker'.
'Who are you to say we're going to check the teeth of these little miscreants because I don't believe they're the right age?'
Mr Davies replied: 'I'm not suggesting they're miscreants. You're getting carried on a tide of emotion. We need to be hard-nosed about this. We've said we're going to help children, not 25-year-olds.
Furious: Piers Morgan was angered by David Davies' suggestion that dental tests be used to check the age of child refugees arriving in Britain from the 'Jungle' migrant camp in Calais
'I appreciate you feel very strongly about this,' he added, before Piers interjected with: 'I do. I don't like the demonisation of this and I think your proposal to check all their teeth is quite offensive.'
Visibly irritated, Mr Davies then replied: 'OK, sorry am I interrupting you or would you like to carry on? I don't want to interrupt your monologue here.'
But his comment was met with a stern response from Piers, who said: 'I think you're making a series of rather sneering, fatuous little points and I would like you to address mine.
'Which is, who are you to decide that these very impoverished people who've been through an absolutely hellish time and are coming to this country in actually comparatively small numbers to what I feel our country's moral duty is to these people and all your response is, 'uh, I don't think they're the right. age. Let's check their teeth' That's why I feel emotional about it.'
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