UK Detains 94 Children as Adults Under Migration Deal

The Home Office wrongly identified 94 children as adults and detained them between August 15, 2025, and May 1, 2026, under Operation Hillmore. This migration deal with France utilizes a one in, one out initiative, allowing the United Kingdom to return small-boat arrivals to France in exchange for accepting individuals with legitimate claims.

Jane Leech, interim chair of the independent monitoring boards, alerted Home Office minister Anna Turley that child safeguarding mechanisms are ineffective. Leech reported that some minors were held for over six months, violating government policy that limits the detention of unaccompanied children to 24 hours. Some detainees were reportedly readied for removal despite having tuberculosis.

Imran Hussain of the Refugee Council described the findings as disturbing and called for professional assessments by social workers to prevent children from being exposed to abuse and neglect. The Home Office defended its current age assessments as essential for border integrity and announced plans to introduce AI technology to the assessment process next year.