An undocumented Afghan migrant, who reportedly answered “I don’t know” 158 times when asked about his age during assessment interviews, has won the right to remain in Britain despite inconsistencies surrounding his birth year.
According to GBN, the asylum seeker, who was granted the right to maintain anonymity, said he was born in 2007 when he first entered the UK, meaning he would have been about 15 at the time of his arrival in Britain.
However, during age-assessment interviews, the migrant said “I don’t know” at least 158 times and repeated “I can’t remember” 49 times when asked about his age and background.
An Afghan migrant has won an asylum case to stay in Britain after answering “I don’t know” more than 150 times during a Home Office interview @ShabanaMahmood @MikeTappTweets @AlexJJNorris @FortinusGlobal @MigObs @migrationCtrl @MigrationWatch @PoliceInspForum…
— Charles Hymas (@charleshymas) December 11, 2025
After a screening interview following his arrival, officials placed him in a housing facility for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. However, he was moved to an adult housing facility in January 2023.
Initially, the Home Office determined his date of birth to be January 31, 2005, which would make him two years older than he claimed to be when he cited 2007 as his birth year.
Further doubts about his story arose after officers noticed the teenager provided January 5, 2005, as his date of birth at the Kent Intake Unit. His reported age kept getting younger with each change to his story.
Authorities also noted that the he did not question the age officials had assigned him until approximately three months after entering Britain, when he was moved into adult accommodation.
Assessors noted that he “give a credible reason for his decision” to provide incorrect information to officials in Kent.
They also believed that the migrant’s repeated inability to remember details surrounding his background and age suggested he was knowingly shielding the details rather than struggling with his memory.
In May 2024, the National Age Assessment Board concluded that the migrant was born in 2005, making him 19 years old at the time. Meanwhile, nine months after he was moved to adult housing, his living conditions reportedly worsened, leaving him homeless.
He was eventually referred to the London Borough of Croydon by a charity and was ultimately placed with a foster family.
Upper Tribunal Judge Leonie Hirst noted how the Afghan national’s most significant contradiction was claiming he was unaware of his birth date while also mentioning a specific date during his initial entry into Britain.
However, the judge also accepted the young man’s testimony when he confessed that other migrants who travelled with him from Afghanistan told him he needed to provide a specific birth date to apply for asylum in the UK.
Afghans boarding a flight to the UK under the Afghan resettlement scheme. The MoD recorded spending a total of £563 million on Afghan resettlement schemes so far, It expects to spend a further £1.5 billion by March 2029. Note: no women or children pic.twitter.com/BxHdcaxh57
— HJB News (@HJB_News__) December 5, 2025
“He has given a relatively consistent account of his background in Afghanistan, and I note that the assessors accepted that his lack of knowledge of birth dates was consistent with anecdotal evidence about Afghan cultural norms,” Judge Hirst stated.
“I find it credible that he does not know his exact date of birth and did not know his age when he left Afghanistan,” he added.
The court also accepted the young migrant’s testimony when he said that his uncle told him he was 16 years old when he was transferred to adult accommodation in early 2023, while his mother informed in early 2024 that he was set to turn 17.
Additionally, the court considered that he suffered from epilepsy and experienced frequent seizures while travelling to Britain. Authorities believed the major condition affected the migrant’s ability to recall facts and share concrete information.
Therefore, despite the major inconsistencies in his testimony and assessment, the Upper Tribunal judge ruled in his favour, accepting his claimed birth year as accurate and providing him the right to stay in Britain.
