Sweden: Pediatrician Says Some Refugee 'Children' Are Actually 40 Years Old

A Swedish pediatrician is sparking debate after saying some refugees claiming to be unaccompanied minors are lying about their age. He even deems some of them to be as old as 40.

"There are only a few cases of course, but they have definitely been between 30 and 40 years old," Pediatrician Josef Milerad was quoted by Swedish tabloid Expressen as saying.

Some 31,000 asylum-seeking refugees are currently registered with the Swedish Migration Agency as unaccompanied minors. But according to Milerad, that number is likely larger than it should be, as he alleges some of those people claim to be much younger than they actually are in order to be granted asylum more easily.

According to Milerad, the tests carried out by Swedish authorities to verify the real age of a child are naive and insufficient, and he advocates for the tests to be done medically, including through x-rays.

...Milerad said that he has examined several people that the migration agency has classed as children, but that according to his own professional opinion almost 40 percent of them are in fact between 20 and 25 years old, and some of them even near their forties.

Because the issue is so controversial Milerad believe that several of his colleagues did not dare say that [they] think like him. This is because they are afraid of being labeled as xenophobic.

- This is such an incredibly emotionally charged issue - it is not clear that rational arguments bites. Many have been in such a categorical way committed to today's age determinations is unethical, that we can not use, but I hope we can have a more informed debate on other aspects of this, says Josef Milerad.