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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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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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