Background: AWT's Journey to the UK
The case concerned a young Afghan national, known as AWT, who arrived in the UK in 2022 as a child. He had fled persecution at the hands of the Taliban and was later recognised as a refugee by the Home Office.
Age Assessment and Loss of Key Documentation
In March 2023, AWT was taken into the care of the London Borough of Southwark (Southwark). Southwark began an age assessment of him later that year. During the age assessment, AWT provided Southwark with his original "Tazkira", an Afghan identity document; however, in March 2024, the document was stolen from the boot of a Local Authority officer's car, seriously affecting AWT's ability to prove his age.
Disputed Age Assessment and Homelessness
In August 2024, Southwark informed AWT that they had assessed him to be 23 years old: five years older than he claimed to be. AWT was moved out of care accommodation and into adult asylum accommodation provided by the Home Office. It then transpired, only a few weeks later, that the Home Office had already granted asylum to AWT but had not informed him. As a result, he was asked to immediately leave asylum accommodation, without being given the standard 28-day notice period, and he became homeless in London.
Duncan Lewis Intervention and Judicial Review Proceedings
Duncan Lewis Solicitors were referred the case and initiated pre-action proceedings with Southwark to challenge the age assessment decision. We also instructed an expert who specialises in examining Afghan documentation, and he was able to verify a copy of AWT's Tazkira and another identity document that AWT obtained from the Afghan embassy in London. Both documents supported AWT's claimed age.
Although the expert's findings were put to Southwark, they maintained their age assessment decision. Consequently, Duncan Lewis issued judicial review proceedings against the local authority, and the Upper Tribunal granted permission for a fact-finding hearing to determine AWT's age. The hearing took place in November 2025 before Upper Tribunal Judge Hoffman.
Upper Tribunal Judgment: AWT Confirmed as Child on Arrival
On 7 January 2026, Judge Hoffman handed down his judgement. He found that AWT was his claimed age (now 19 years old) and that he was a child on arrival in the UK, and he ordered Southwark to treat AWT as a "care leaver" in line with its duties under the Children's Act 1989.
Key Findings on Age Assessment Methodology
The judge made important findings on the weight to be attached to identity documents obtained in/from Afghanistan (and the expert's opinion on the same). He accepted that AWT had been consistent about his date of birth since arriving in the UK and that Southwark had relied, among other things, on "incredibly trivial" inconsistencies in AWT's account of how he knew his age and his life in Afghanistan. He also acknowledged that AWT's youth and limited education were likely to have affected his memory and therefore, his ability to give evidence of his age to Southwark's age assessors.
Legal Representation
AWT was represented by solicitor Jamie Bell and caseworker Hamish Dick. Agata Patyna from Doughty Street Chambers was instructed as counsel.