Germany Looks into Ultrasound Age Tests on Unaccompanied Minor Refugees

Article author: 
Deutsche Welle
Article publisher: 
American Renaissance
Article date: 
25 January 2019
Article category: 
National News
Medium
Article Body: 
Calls for mandatory X-ray age tests on unaccompanied minor refugees were rejected last year by German doctors. As an alternative, the Health Ministry is now launching a €1-million study into ultrasound testing.
 
Age can have a huge implication on the future prospects of an asylum-seeker in Germany. In principle, unaccompanied minors — under the age of 18 and without family — cannot be deported. Upon their arrival in Germany, unaccompanied minors also have the right to go to school or start a training course immediately....
 
Certain carpal bones in the wrist are initially composed of cartilage at young age and ossify only gradually. The status of this development process, which is correlated with age, can be determined using X-rays, but the process doesn’t happen at the same rate for everyone. As a result, an X-ray test of a hand bone can have a margin of error of up to three years; a person who claims to be 18 years old could be anywhere from 15 to 21 years old....
 
In other EU countries, mandatory checks already exist. In Belgium, for example, every asylum-seeker is checked if their age cannot be proven by documents. X-rays are taken of the teeth, the hands and the collarbone. In Italy, wrists are X-rayed, and in Sweden, knees and teeth are scanned using magnetic resonance imaging, though these tests are voluntary and are considered legal proof.