Helen Foot was instructed in R(BSB) v Secretary of State for the Home Department JR-2025-LON-003816 (promulgated on 2 July 2026) by Jamie Bell and Anya Mohammed of Duncan Lewis solicitors.
The Upper Tribunal accepted the claimed age of BSB, an Eritrean refugee and victim of modern slavery, and quashed a decision of the Home Secretary, made by the National Age Assessment Board (NAAB), which found that the Applicant (BSB) was an adult at all material times
BSB was born in Eritrea on 14 April 2007. When he was approximately 3 years old, he and his mother left Eritrea and went to live in Ethiopia as refugees. Following the death of his mother when he was 14, BSB travelled to Libya via Sudan with friends of his mother. In Libya he was separated from them, forced to undertake construction work, and beaten and abused by traffickers who harassed him based on his faith as an Orthodox Christian. BSB escaped with the assistance of two Eritrean adults who took him to Italy, France, and Belgium. He arrived in the UK in March 2024, when he was 16 years old.
Based solely on his appearance and demeanour, he was initially assessed by immigration officers to be 26 years old. Following a second age assessment by the London Borough of Hillingdon, which also concluded he was an adult, but which was subsequently withdrawn since it did not meet the guidelines in R(B) v Merton LBC [2003] EWHC 1689, he was referred to the NAAB. The NAAB concluded that BSB was born on 14 February 2005 and had been an adult since arriving in the UK.
During the age assessment process, BSB was granted refugee status in the UK and accepted to be a victim of modern slavery in a Conclusive Grounds decision issued by the UK Competent Authority.
In accepting BSB’s account of his age, the Upper Tribunal found that the NAAB focused unnecessarily on minor and peripheral inconsistences in BSB’s narrative, without taking into account (i) BSB’s explanation for giving a false, adult, date of birth when he was in Dunkirk and under the influence of adults; (ii) the fact that aspects of BSB’s account had been found to be credible both by the Competent Authority and the Home Office in granting him asylum or (iii) the fact that BSB had been consistent in his claimed date of birth since arriving in the UK.
The Upper Tribunal rejected a submission on behalf of the Secretary of State that age assessments conducted by the NAAB should attract a greater degree of deference than those carried out by local authorities, finding that there was no authority to support such a proposition.
The London Borough of Hillingdon, who had initially assessed BSB as an adult, but accommodated and supported him under the Children Act 1989 since June 2025 pursuant to an order granting interim relief by the Administrative Court, was an interested party to the proceedings.
To instruct or contact Helen Foot, please email: immigrationclerks@gclaw.co.uk
