Sweden introduces medical tests to vet age of young refugees

Following an influx of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Sweden, the government has faced pressure to undertake medical tests like x-rays to vet the age of young asylum seekers.

The tests have faced opposition from doctors and lawyers but on Friday Sweden's National Board of Forensic Medicine announced that analyses of wisdom teeth in combination with magnetic resonance imaging of knee joints will be admissible.

The method is apparently in line with recommendations from the National Board of Health and Welfare.

"Each x-ray image will be analyzed by two experts and the assessment will only be valid if the experts reach the same conclusion," Elias Palm, head of methodology at the Board of Forensic Medicine, told Swedish Television.

There are ethnic variations when it comes to the maturation of both knee joints and wisdom teeth, Palm explained, but for the teeth that difference disappears towards to the end of the maturity phase.

As for knee joints, there are signs that socio-economic conditions have an impact, but that would work towards the examined person's advantage, according to Palm, since it is reasonable to presume that asylum seekers are from groups of low rather than high socio-economic status.

Using the methods together will increase the quality of the examinations since knee joints mature later and teeth mature earlier, said Palm.

The medical tests are voluntary and the Board of Forensic Medicine will demand consent from the individuals whom the Swedish Migration Agency wishes to examine.

More than a fifth of migrants and refugees arriving in Sweden last year were unaccompanied children. Sweden has received more unaccompanied minors than any other country in Europe. Many have come without IDs.

The Migration Agency makes an initial assessment of the person's age but the assessments have been criticized for being too uncertain. If a person is not obviously older than 18, he or she is labelled as a child before being placed in a municipality.

In the past year, several municipalities have warned that adults have been placed in care homes for children and in schools together with minors.

According to the Migration Agency, there are doubts concerning the ages of around 70 percent of young refugees who have claimed to be between 15 and 17 years old. Endit