Legal experts decry bone tests on migrants to determine their age in France



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French lawyers have pleaded against France's use of bone tests to determine the age of a minor migrant in front of the highest French court, in order to prevent the prosecution of 39, a test that critics describe as obsolete and imprecise.

"There are many causes of error in these tests," lawyer lawyer Isabelle Zribi told the French Constitutional Council in Paris on Tuesday, adding that the margin of error in the determination of the The age of a person could be two to three years.

Unaccompanied minors who arrive in France have the right to stay and be educated until the age of 18 years. Bone tests have been used to ensure that those who say they are under 18 are telling the truth.

The test on the bones, an X-ray of a person's hand and his left wrist, is extremely imprecise, Zribi said in court, citing the example of a person who may have bones that appeared to be 18 but 14 years old.

"There is no scientific truth in bone testing and you will not find anyone today who says otherwise," she said.

In a lawsuit filed in 2016 over bone tests, Jacques Toubon, head of the human rights advocates' badociation, said he was "firmly opposed "poorly adjusted, ineffective and unworthy" tests.

A French law on the protection of children, adopted in March 2016, prohibited the examination of the development of puberty, but a review can be requested by a judge, after the minor in question has agreed to do so.

"But is it constitutional or not? A minor is likely to be treated as an adult, so it's his right to shelter and to his school that is in danger, and the punitive measures to be free also have repercussions, " said Zribi in court.

The case was brought to court this month after a young Guinean refused to consent to a bone examination, which the judge in his case had used as evidence that he was major.

The French Constitutional Council is deliberating and should deliver its judgment this week.

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