- Charity TACT tweet interpreter claims later shared by thousands online
- Home Office forced to confirm that the migrant was not working for them
- Calais migrant and charity worker admit 'Jungle' residents lie about age
- Aid workers with megaphones asking for children who want to go to UK
- Councils threatened revolt if they were burdened with fake 'child' migrants
- Migrants suspected of lying about their age being given 'benefit of doubt'
Published:
10:17 GMT, 20 October 2016
|
Updated:
12:52 GMT, 20 October 2016
Two
top charities caused a frenzy today after falsely claiming a 'child
refugee' was an adult interpreter as one migrant in Calais said the
'majority' lie about their age.
The
Home Office has today been forced to confirm the unnamed asylum seeker
from Afghanistan, aged by face recognition software as being 38, was not
their employee.
Overnight
thousands including Gary Lineker and other stars tweeted about charity
claims that the migrant was an adult interpreter helping border
officials at Croydon immigration centre.
TACT,
the UK's largest fostering and adoption charity, appear to have assumed
one asylum seeker who arrived yesterday was older than 18 and tweeted:
'This is a picture of an adult interpreter working for @ukhomeoffice'.
George
Gabriel of Citizens UK also said yesterday: 'We think one of the photos
is actually a translator accompanying the children' and the BBC was
also criticised online for reporting the false claim, debunked by the
Home Office this morning.
It
came as migrants and charity workers in Calais' Jungle camp admitted
the 'majority' of young migrants are 'lying' about their age to get to
Britain as children because it gives them a better chance to enter the
UK.
Row: Charities falsely claimed this
child migrant arriving at Croydon from Calais yesterday was an
interpreter, the Home Office has said
New arrivals: Child migrants covered their faces with blankets as they arrived in Britain today
No comments:
Post a Comment