The UK Home Office announced plans Wednesday to establish a new Scientific Advisory Committee for developing a scientific method for evaluating the age of asylum seekers. The Home Office states that this method will prevent adult asylum seekers from posing as children to obtain support and benefits fraudulently.

Discussing the program further, Home Secretary Priti Patel criticized the practice of single grown adult men “masquerading as children claiming asylum,” calling it “an appalling abuse of our system.” Secretary Patel stated that these men then access children’s services and schools and put student safety at risk. She further claimed that in two-thirds of dispute cases, the asylum-seeking individual claiming to be a child was actually over 18.

Scientific methods for generally determining age have been employed in other European countries, with select methods involving an analysis of tooth development, X-rays of bone fusion in the wrist, or CT/MRI scans to determine whether the migrant’s physical development is typical of that of their claimed age. Such methods have received approval from forensics experts, though cautioning that they provide probabilities and are not necessarily conclusive for all subjects.

The UK parliament is currently debating an immigration reform bill, the Nationality & Borders Bill, which would empower the British government to tighten its policies on illegal immigration and human trafficking, as well as introduce new regulations for claiming asylum in the UK. The UK granted asylum to more than 13,000 people in the year ending in September 2021, an increase over the previous year.