"The medical assessment should give us an answer to the question we have posed: is the person a child or an adult?" The boundaries of medical age assessments on unaccompanied minors in Swedish asylum procedures.

Abstract: With the events of 2015, commonly referred to as the refugee-situation, a light has been cast on various European Union member states’ handling of asylum seekers. In relation to overall stricter procedures, the Swedish state has proposed a series of restrictive policies to cope with the situation. Of focus is the Swedish government’s effort to regulate the area of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, a group steadily rising since 2010. Unaccompanied minors seeking asylum have certain rights connected to their age, as legally separated by the age of eighteen. As many lack proper documents these rights have been identified as both difficult to access, but also to provide to children only. In response the Swedish government has initiated policies aimed at separating adults from children and thus reduce the costs of asylum. Medical age assessments have been proposed through collaboration between the National Board of Forensic Medicine and the Migration Agency. To achieve the goal of reducing costs, the age assessment has also been moved from the final to the initial part of the asylum investigation. Countering the legislative objectives posed, the thesis embarks on an analysis of what can be achieved through legislation. Through interviews with participants working with unaccompanied minors, the policies’ boundaries are analysed in relation to Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. Aiming at observing what the identified systems of politics, science and law can manage in their communications. Concluding that the age assessments are not reasonably placed on the Migration Agency (within the legal system). As a result the issues surrounding age assessment remains as the policy expectations fall outside of the system’s boundaries.