There are "no exact figures" on the number of asylum seekers who are pretending to be unaccompanied minors when they arrive in Ireland.

Officials at the Department of Children have warned that some adult asylum seekers may be pretending to be under the age of 18 when they arrive – adding to the “severe demands” on an already under-strain system.

They note that when a person claims to be under-18, their initial interview with international protection staff is suspended and they are immediately referred to Tusla.

Officials are calling on international protection staff to hold more in-depth interviews before referring people to the child and family agency.

On The Pat Kenny Show, Irish Times journalist Jack Power said the number of adults pretending to be unaccompanied minors is likely to be "quite small"- noting that tens of thousands of asylum seekers have come to Ireland in recent years and only a small proportion of them have been unaccompanied children. 

“The amount of unaccompanied minors that Tusla have in their care at the start of this year was around 300 - that's in total,” Mr Power said. 

“So, you’d imagine a much smaller cohort of that number were these people who initially claimed that they were under 18 and then it later transpired after further interviews, they either reported afterwards they were actually adults or they were assessed by social workers to be adults after more lengthy interviews.”

Sign for Tusla the Child and Family Agency at one of their offices in Dublin, Ireland. Picture by: Alamy.com

Mr Power said there are no “exact figures” on people claiming to be under the age of 18.

He said there are several reasons asylum seekers may claim to be children.

He noted that while the State is no longer able to guarantee accommodation to all international protection applicants, provision for women and children continues to be prioritised.

“When Tusla take [children] into their care, they have a responsibility to accommodate them - so that would be one big difference,” Mr Power said. 

“Whereas we’ve obviously seen - particularly in the case of single men - they’ve been left on the streets where the Department of Integration hasn’t been able to offer them accommodation. 

“So, you’d imagine that would be one benefit.” 

The data does not contain a gender breakdown for the number of unaccompanied minors.

"It doesn't give much breakdown at all," Mr Power said.

"The documents that we've seen that were released under the Freedom of Information Act to Aontú TD Peadar Tóibín, who shared them with the Irish Times.

"It only speaks to the problem in general... but it does flag that officials have been talking about this since last October."

Up until the first week of July this year, 11,052 people applied for asylum in Ireland.

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Main image: A person queues outside the International Protection Office in Dublin. Picture by: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie