UKIP deputy minister makes false claim about age of unaccompanied children seeking asylum

During an appearance on GB News last week, the deputy leader of UKIP, Rebecca Jane, claimed that in 2020 54% of unaccompanied asylum seeking children “actually turned out to be adults”, and that in 2022 this figure was over 70%.

A clip of the appearance was also shared by the party’s Facebook page, with a caption featuring slightly different figures, which said: “In 2020, 50% of ‘child’ asylum claims turned out to be grown men. In 2022 that figure is now 72%.”

In 2020, just over half of all resolved age dispute cases involved asylum seekers who were ultimately found to be over 18. But it’s not correct to refer to these cases as the percentage of all unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) who turn out to be adults, as the age is not disputed in the majority of UASC applications.

Data for 2022 shows that 3,624 asylum applications were made by lone children, and 514 (14%) were found to be adults.

UKIP hasn’t responded to Full Fact’s request to provide the source for this claim, but it appears to be based on a misinterpretation of figures for age dispute cases. 

An “age disputed person” is an individual seeking permission to stay in the UK who, in the view of a Home Office or local authority official, does not have sufficient evidence to prove their age.  

The figure given for 2022 also appears to be too high even as a percentage of age dispute cases, and we don’t know how many were men, as age dispute figures are not broken down by gender.

Police Scotland hasn’t renamed paedophiles as ‘minor attracted people’

A video being shared on Facebook claims that Scotland has renamed paedophiles “minor attracted people”. The background of the video shows a screenshot of an article with the headline “Scotland Police Rename Pedophiles As “Minor Attracted People” at Direction of EU”.

The article points to a report from Police Scotland on policing performance which used the phrase “minor-attracted people” instead of paedophiles. The use of this phrase in the policing performance report was also covered by the Telegraph, the Sun, MailOnline and the Independent.

However, in a statement on 31 December, Police Scotland said media reporting had misrepresented their position on the term “minor-attracted person”.

Detective Chief Superintendent Sam Faulds, Head of Public Protection for Police Scotland, said: “Police Scotland does not use the term Minor-Attracted Person to describe this type of offender and any suggestion otherwise completely misrepresents our position.

“The term referenced in a Police Scotland report in June 2022 was quoted from proposal documents for the establishment of the Horizon Project, a European consortium to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation.

“At the first meeting of the consortium, in Warsaw in September 2022, Police Scotland officers successfully lobbied for the MAP term to be removed from recognised terminology used by more than 20 European partners.

“Our view was that the term was entirely unacceptable in describing someone either involved in sexual offending against children or who has indecent thoughts towards them.”

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