Time and means are needed to carry out the necessary tests to determine the age of immigrant minors who, for the most part, have a limit age of close to eighteen years, and therein lies the difficulty, because they come from very borderline ages," explains José David Blázquez Alcázar, forensic doctor and forensic anthropologist, member of the Institute of Legal and Forensic Medicine of Aragón, in Zaragoza.
The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, assured the Onda Cero microphones yesterday Thursday that the central government has tried to introduce 700 migrants "through the back door." According to his story, and as the radio station states in its information, many of these immigrants "were identified as minors, although health tests indicated that a significant portion were of legal age."
The president of Andalusia described this action as "a lack of institutional loyalty", in addition to focusing on a very sensitive issue for the teams of forensic professionals in charge of determining the age of minors, on both sides of the Mediterranean coast.
What is the work of forensics like?
To determine age, forensic experts radiate the wrist, the teeth and, ultimately, the clavicle, but everything in an order. "International guidelines require that the least radiation be applied. So we start with a physical examination of the young man, to see the person's complexion, which does not include the genital part, and which is not usually decisive. "Afterwards, we do an initial screening of the carpal bone of the wrist, which also gives us difficulties."
Why is this wrist test not decisive in these cases? "The immigrants who have arrived in Ceuta are from Morocco and in the population of the African continent it is documented that the wrist closes later, therefore, a false sense of youth is given," he explains.
To overcome this obstacle, the coroner points out that an orthopantograph is performed, "to see the third molar." The development in this population, explains the expert, depends on the area of Africa where the person comes from, the teeth close a little sooner or later. "A Kenyan is not the same as a Moroccan. In Morocco there is a lot of mix, but their development is closer to that of a Spaniard," he adds.
From the National Institute of Health Management (Ingesa), directly responsible for health care in Ceuta and Melilla, they have informed this medium that they have carried out 419 orthopantomograms since the immigrant crisis began in the autonomous city on July 30.
While the State Attorney General's Office has responded to this medium that the Ceuta Prosecutor's Office has not transferred the data related to the number of open processes to determine the age of people arriving in the autonomous city from the border with Morocco.
The medical examiner states confidently: "We will not be able to give an exact age. "We are going to be able to give an interval and, to say that it is a person of legal age, that interval must necessarily be above 18 years of age, also in its lower range."
For this reason, key critical intervals may remain in the affiliation and destiny of this population: especially in the interval from 17 years to 18 and a half years. "If there is doubt, you must always consider that the person is a minor. In that case we would do a clavicle CT, to be able to approximate the age more closely. That is the last resort, which is used when the estimate is around 18 years, because the idea is to subject the person to the least possible radiation. It is very likely that many people are considered minors, even if they are adults, but as our maxim is that, when in doubt, we must always seek the greatest protection for the person."
This decision is based on an international criterion to which Spain has adhered. In fact, says Blázquez, they are waiting for the Forensic Medical Council to update a technical document on these tests to determine age, "something that was expected to happen this year." In any case, "we have the indications of the European Union Asylum Agency (EASO) for this area."
