Baobab Webinar: Ending the Silence Pre- Book Launch

For many unaccompanied minors, arrival in UK begins another struggle: the fight to be believed and recognised as children.  

Age disputes have a detrimental and lasting impact on young survivors. Practically, age disputes determine whether a young people access vital support such as foster care, education, safeguarding, family reunification and family life. Being wrongly assessed, which many children are, leaves them without the care, support and protection, every child deserves.   

The impact is not only practical but psychological. For young people who have already experienced unimaginable trauma, having a core part of their identity disbelieved is re-traumatising and create significant barriers to recovery and well-being.  

As discussion around age assessment continue, and as the Home Office rolls out AI including for facial age assessments at port, it is vital that the human voices of young survivors who have experienced age disputes are at the centre.   

In collaboration with Freedom from Torture, some of our young people have contributed their experienced to an important new book: Ending the Silence which brings together testimonies, experiences and art from 30 young people who were age disputed when they arrived in the UK.  

On Thursday 29th October 2026 at 5pm, you have the opportunity to hear directly from the young survivors that have contributed to the Ending the Silence, alongside leading experts about the experience, challenges, and evidence