Forensic age assessment of asylum seekers in Finland

Abstract

In Finland, forensic age assessment is strictly regulated by legislation. According to the Aliens Act (301/2004) and the amendment of the Act (549/2010), the police authorities, the frontier guard authorities, and the immigration authorities have the right to refer asylum seekers to the University of Helsinki, Department of Forensic Medicine, for age assessment. These assessments are especially performed to solve if the person is of major age, the cutoff being 18 completed years. The forensic age assessment is largely based on dental development, since the special permit of the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) to the Department of Forensic Medicine of the University of Helsinki, allowing the use of ionizing radiation for non-medical purposes, includes dental and hand X-rays. Forensic age assessment is always performed by two forensic odontologists. In 2015, the total number of forensic age assessment examinations was 149, and the countries of origin of the asylum seekers were most commonly Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. The current legislation on forensic age assessment has been well received and approved. Radiological and other examinations can be performed in different parts of Finland, but the forensic odontologist at the University of Helsinki is always involved in the process and ensures joint quality standards for the forensic age assessment.

Timing of Development of the Permanent Mandibular Dentition: New Reference Values from the Fels Longitudinal Study

“…Evaluating the stages of dental development, specifically tooth mineralization, is a reliable way of achieving both of those goals, as dental development is more buffered (though not completely isolated) from environmental influences than skeletal growth and maturation (Cardoso, 2007;Conceição and Cardoso, 2011). In the past several years, the use of dental radiographs for the purposes of forensic age estimations in the contexts of migrants and asylum seekers has garnered considerable debate in Europe regarding the ethics of such practice, particularly in the light of the imprecision or inaccuracy surrounding age prediction (Anders et al, 2012;Aynsley-Green et al, 2012;Thevissen et al, 2012;Focardi et al, 2014;Sauer et al, 2016;Metsäniitty et al, 2017;Malmqvist et al, 2018). Most recently, there have been reports of exclusive use of dental radiographs to estimate chronological age in asylum seekers in the United States (Bogado, 2018), despite federal law requiring the use of multiple forms of evidence to estimate chronological age in unaccompanied aliens (William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, 2008).…”

Ethical aspects of medical age assessment in the asylum process: a Swedish perspective

“…The purpose of the present paper is to present our main findings and the reasoning that underlies them to a wider international audience. This, we hope, will contribute insights to the ongoing international debate on the ethics of age assessments in the asylum process [ 5 – 8 ] and complement recent reports about such measures from other countries [ 8 , 9 ].…”

Radiographic analysis of dental maturation in children with amelogenesis imperfecta: A case‐control study

“…In practice, it enables more reliable treatment plans in orthodontics, orthopedics, and pediatrics 19,20 . In forensic dentistry, dental age estimation contributes to establishing biological profiles of deceased victims 6–10 – for human identification cases, and enables expertise based on age for civil purposes, such as in case of adoption and asylum seekers 11–15 . Most of the studies in the field sampled subjects with no systemic or genetic alterations 11,16,18 .…”

“…Together with sex, stature, and ancestry, age builds up a biological profile of the deceased 6–10 . In the living, it also contributes to human identification in the forensic field, especially when it comes to asylum seekers 11–15 and alleged minor offenders 16–18 . From a clinical perspective, dental age estimation supports treatment planning in orthodontics, orthopedics, and pediatrics 19,20 …”