A Vietnamese refugee who travelled to Salford after being trafficked into the country lost a legal challenge against the Home Office after he was found to have lied about his age.
The man, identified only as BVT, claimed he was 14 when he arrived in the UK in October 2020, but a judge at the Upper Tribunal ruled he was 18 at the time.
He asked the Upper Tribunal to review the Home Office’s age assessment decision, but his legal challenge was dismissed on 6 July.
It was accepted during the proceedings that he was a victim of human trafficking.
BVT claimed he was trafficked into the country and forced to work on cannabis farms to pay for his father’s gambling debts, including at an address in Sheffield where he was found by police in 2021 during a drugs raid.
After he came onto the radar of South Yorkshire Police, BVT said he was 14 years old but later changed his alias and stated he was 16, born on 25 March 2005.
As he was believed to be under the age of 18, criminal charges were dropped against him and he was referred to Barnsley Council’s Children’s Services who accommodated him from 27 April 2001.
He remained in their care for a month but then went missing for more than two years before, in October 2023, he became known again to UK authorities and claimed asylum.
Then, he presented a new “actual” name and said he was born on 8 August 2006.
BVT claimed he went missing in 2021 because he was trafficked to a cannabis farm in Scotland, which he escaped in 2023.
But the judge at the Upper Tribunal found that activity from his Facebook account was inconsistent with the claim he was “forcibly and continuously” cultivating cannabis between 2021 and 2023.
Instead, Facebook data showed BVT had made searches for Nail Bar jobs within the UK between 3 February 2022 and 27 September 2022.
He joined a number of Facebook groups including “Job Search, Nail – Classifieds – find a Job UK and Nail Technician Search” and posted several times on the website.
The Facebook evidence showed Salford was one of many towns and cities he lived in or travelled to while he was believed to be missing from January 2023 until October 2023, when he approached the police.
It also disproved BVT’s claims that he had no contact with his family after 2021, showing him responding to his sister’s news in November 2021.
His Facebook profile also showed that he attended a specific secondary school in Vietnam for students aged between 15 and 18 years old.
“The applicant’s Facebook profile shows that he attended a specific High School, I find that this evidence reveals that the applicant has been dishonest about his educational history and that it further undermines the applicant’s claim that he was aged 13 when he left Vietnam in 2019,” Upper Tribunal Judge Kamara said.
The Home Office carried out an age assessment in 2024 which considered his presentation, education and behaviour, and concluded he was likely older than he claimed.
The assessors also considered whether the different identities and dates of birth he had given may have been used to avoid criminal consequences and access support intended for children. They noted that he only provided what he said were his true details after his fingerprints matched previous records.
They rejected that BVT’s inconsistent account could be solely because of “trauma‑related memory issues.”
Judge Kamara placed considerable weight on the age assessment and concluded that BVT was born in 2002, meaning he was an adult when he arrived in the UK.
After BVT’s challenge was dismissed, he was ordered to pay the Home Office’s legal costs, but the amount he may have to pay will need to be decided as he is a recipient of legal aid.
