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Age assessment in unaccompanied minors: assessing uniformity of protocols across Europe

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Abstract

Age assessment of migrants is crucial, particularly for unaccompanied foreign minors, a population facing legal, social, and humanitarian challenges. Despite existing guidelines, there is no unified protocol in Europe for age assessment.

The Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe (FASE) conducted a comprehensive questionnaire to understand age estimation practices in Europe. The questionnaire had sections focusing on the professional background of respondents, annual assessment numbers, requesting parties and reasons, types of examinations conducted (e.g., physical, radiological), followed protocols, age estimation methods, and questions on how age estimates are reported.

The questionnaire's findings reveal extensive engagement of the forensic community in age assessment in the living, emphasizing multidisciplinary approaches. However, there seems to be an incomplete appreciation of AGFAD guidelines. Commonalities exist in examination methodologies and imaging tests. However, discrepancies emerged among respondents regarding sexual maturity assessment and reporting assessment results. Given the increasing importance of age assessment, especially for migrant child protection, the study stresses the need for a unified protocol across European countries. This can only be achieved if EU Member States wholeheartedly embrace the fundamental principles outlined in EU Directives and conduct medical age assessments aligned with recognized standards such as the AGFAD guidelines.

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Acknowledgements

This work was possible thanks to the community of FASE and also of GIAOF (Gruppo Italiano Antropologia e Odontologia Forense) of whom we would like to thank all members.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LABANOF, Laboratorio Di Antropologia E Odontologia Forense, Sezione Di Medicina Legale, Dipartimento Di Scienze Biomediche Per La Salute, Università Degli Studi Di Milano, Via Mangiagalli 37, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Marco Cummaudo, Stefano Tambuzzi, Robin Peckitt, Danilo De Angelis & Cristina Cattaneo

  2. Centre for Forensic Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, Perth, WA, Australia

    Zuzana Obertova

  3. Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Frederik V’s Vej 11, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Niels Lynnerup

  4. Department of Legal Medicine Linköping, National Board of Forensic Medicine, Linköping, Sweden

    Anja Petaros

  5. Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Hans de Boer

  6. EDPFM, Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Montpellier, CHU Montpellier, 34000, Montpellier, France

    Eric Baccino

  7. Human Variation and Identification Research Unit, School of Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Maryna Steyn

  8. National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Coimbra, Portugal

    Eugenia Cunha

  9. Human Identification & Forensic Analysis Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 276995, USA

    Ann Ross

  10. Aix Marseille University, CNRS, EFS, ADES, 13007, Marseille, France

    Pascal Adalian

  11. Forensic Medicine Unit, Department of Forensic Sciences, Medical School, University of Crete, 700 13, Heraklion, Greece

    Elena Kranioti

  12. University Center of Legal Medicine (CURML), Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland

    Tony Fracasso

  13. Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal

    Maria Teresa Ferreira

  14. Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics (ICTEAM), and Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université Catholique de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, 1200, Brussels, Belgium

    Philippe Lefèvre

  15. Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via Luciano Armanni 5, 80138, Naples, Italy

    Carlo Pietro Campobasso

  16. Department of Forensic Medicine, Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, Güney Mahallesi 1140/1 Yenisehir, Konak, Izmir, Turkey

    Oguzhan Ekizoglu

Authors
  1. Marco Cummaudo
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  2. Zuzana Obertova
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  18. Oguzhan Ekizoglu
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  19. Danilo De Angelis
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  20. Cristina Cattaneo
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Marco Cummaudo and Robin Peckitt. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Marco Cummaudo and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Marco Cummaudo.

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Cummaudo, M., Obertova, Z., Lynnerup, N. et al. Age assessment in unaccompanied minors: assessing uniformity of protocols across Europe. Int J Legal Med 138, 983–995 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-024-03157-8

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