A RECORD number of asylum seekers were caught pretending to be children in the first half of this year.
A total of 1,317 migrants claiming to be minors at the border were judged to be adults brazenly plotting to gain extra protection from being sent home.
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It is the highest number for the first six months of any year on record and more than the combined totals for all of 2017, 2018 and 2019.
It is almost six times higher than the 224 rumbled by enforcement officials in all of 2014.
This year’s figure has included 283 from Afghanistan, 282 from Sudan, 236 from Vietnam and 140 from Eritrea.
A record 2,122 age disputes were launched amid fears of people- smugglers telling young adult men, often arriving without documents, to abuse the system by saying they are teen boys.
Unaccompanied minors asking for asylum are far less likely to have their claims rejected and deported.
Migrants who have used the ruse include Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, who was 19 when he told Home Office officials he was 14 after sneaking in on a ferry in December 2019.
Three years later, the Afghan fatally knifed aspiring Royal Marine Tom Roberts, 21, in Bournemouth town centre.
In 2010, Iraqi asylum seeker Rabar Hamad was studying for his GCSE exams when he was found to be 20 — four years older than he claimed.
The record figures come after Tory leadership frontrunner and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick said dozens of terror suspects had been among those to have claimed asylum after crossing in small boats.
He added: “These are people our security services identified as known quantities, threats to our communities, with links to Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
“And they waltzed right in.”
A Labour source said: “We inherited a completely failed immigration system.
“We’re getting to grips with the task in hand and bolstering border security.”