On 30 October, the ACMRL hosted a research seminar on age assessment technologies in asylum procedures. In the seminar, Evelien Brouwer, senior researcher at the section, and Romain Lanneau, former student of the IMRL Master’s programme, presented the findings of their research on this issue.

Brouwer and Lanneau explained that, in EU asylum law, the identification of a person as a child plays an important role with regard to the enhanced procedural and reception safeguards for minors, but also with regard to the assessment of the responsible state under the Dublin Regulation, and the right to family reunification. Currently, Member States use different technologies of age assessment which raises questions on the reliability of these techniques and the protection of the rights of the child. On the basis of recent case-law from France and the UK, Brouwer and Lanneau argued that these different technologies lead to highly diverging legal assessments as well, despite the fact that EU-law aims to provide common standards on these assessments.

We thank Evelien and Romain for their intriguing and critical contribution on this critical issue in European asylum law.