THE world's top expert on determining the ages of children has slammed the use of wrist X-rays on which federal police have relied to keep dozens of Indonesian boys in adult jails.
Sir Al Aynsley-Green, Britain's founding Children's Commissioner, said the federal police's use of X-rays to assess the ages of Indonesian crew members of asylum seeker boats was "unethical, inaccurate, not fit for purpose proposed and potentially unlawful".
"There are aspects of the current process of assessing age in Australia that should cause grave concern," Sir Al told The Age. "Injustice is likely when a decision on age is driven by using a method involving wrist X-ray which has been rejected elsewhere."
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Federal police have relied on an X-ray process that was established in the 1950s to determine that more than 60 Indonesian crew members of asylum seeker boats who claim to be under 18 are adults and must face mandatory five-year jail terms under people-smuggling laws.
Doctors compare X-rays with those taken from largely white middle-class children in the United States in the 1930s.
In the cases of three Indonesian boys held with adult criminals in Brisbane, federal police ignored evidence such as extracts of birth certificates and assessments by immigration officers - choosing to rely solely on X-ray examinations.
About 10 other Indonesians claiming to be under 18 are in custody waiting to undergo X-rays, the only prescribed method available to the federal police under legislation to determine the ages of children.
Sir Al - who is Professor Emeritus of Child Health at University College London and has led several major inquiries into the circumstances of children and families seeking asylum in England - told The Age the use of radiology deserved vigorous public, professional and ethical scrutiny: "Australian society, professional organisations and its courts need to define as a matter of urgency which methods of age assessment are acceptable, what limits of uncertainty are valid and how a consensus can be reached in individual cases."
He said children's commissioners or other statutory bodies in Australia should be given the power to enter premises to witness screenings and age assessments on individuals claiming to be children, including asylum seekers.
Sir Al, who was knighted for his services to children in 2006, has been asked to give expert evidence in the cases of three Indonesian boys snatched from their impoverished Indonesian village by people smugglers to work on an asylum seeker boat that arrived in Australian waters last year. Based solely on the evidence of wrist X-rays they had been held for months in a
high-security adult Brisbane jail with murderers, rapists and paedophiles.
The boys were freed on bail from jail and put under the care of the Immigration Department after The Age revealed lawyers had obtained birth extracts and other evidence from their village proving they are aged 15 and 16.
Under federal policy, Indonesian crew members who are under 18 are supposed to be flown home without charge.
Sir Al's comments will intensify pressure on the Gillard government to free from adult jails all of the Indonesians who claim to be under 18.
Defence lawyers had already begun preparing legal challenges to the X-rays based on judicial rulings and studies showing that no scientific method exists that can precisely tell a person's age.
Sir Al said the Australian government should set up a working party to define a policy for age assessment that was evidence-based, ethical and in line with best international practice.
After The Age revealed the plight of the three boys being held in Brisbane, a spokeswoman for Justice Minister Brendan O'Connor said a working group from the federal police, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Immigration Department would "examine what steps can be taken to ensure that age determination procedures provide the best evidence for a court".
In Britain, assessments by trained social workers are used to determine a child's age. Where people are thought to be close to 18 they are treated as a minor unless proven otherwise.
Reports that Sir Al wrote in England led to significant changes in the way British authorities deal with failed asylum seeker families.
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