Calais jungle crisis: Age checks on migrants 'right thing' says Black Country councillor

Mike Bird, the leader of Walsall's Conservative opposition group, said that local authorities faced increasing pressure from migrants and that it was vital the right people were arriving.

His comments came as hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children from the Jungle camp on the north French coast were being transported to Britain.

Councillor Bird said: "I think age testing is absolutely the right thing to do. What we are seeing is that the problem is being exacerbated by people who are trying to fleece the system.

"You watch what is going on there and they all say they want to come to the UK. Why? Because they believe the streets are paved with gold.

"We need to come up with a permanent solution. At the moment we are only dealing with consequences and not root cause behind this migrant crisis. The problem has been that the government is damned if it does them and damned if it doesn't. Some people say it is a crisis and expect Britain to be the answer to everything.

"It's funny isn't it? The French don't want to talk to us over Brexit but they want us to pay for them to demolish the camp that was created because they did nothing about what was going on.

"We need to be sure of who exactly is coming here. Also questions have to be asked why if these people are fearing for their lives, why haven't they stopped and claimed asylum in the first safe country they arrived in?"

Yesterday Wolverhampton council leader Roger Lawrence, who is chairman of the West Midlands Strategic Migration Partnership, said the Black Country and Staffordshire would be expecting a 'small number' of child migrants to arrive in the region.

He said that there would be no hit to local authority finances because a government grant was covering the placement of child migrants with relatives.

But Mr Bird said he was still concerned about other impacts on services.

He said: "It is a big issue. The government are not doing enough to recompense things like translation into foreign languages and then time and resource of social services.

"Councils up and down the country are struggling with children's services and social services."

As well as the scheme of bringing around 800 migrant children from the Calais camp to Britain by March, the government has also pledged to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020. And on top of that are thousands of asylum cases which has seen hundreds of asylum seekers placed in the Black Country.

Yesterday Mr Lawrence said that age testing of migrant children was a 'matter for the Home Office' but added that councils had offered to help with the vetting process but had been turned down by the government.

Concerns were raised over the validity of the migrants' claims after a number of the 'children' looked noticeably older – including with crows feet around their eyes.

Ministers said some of the children may look older because they have fled war-torn countries and had seen and experienced horrific things. Mr Lawrence said that each Black Country borough was expecting to receive in the region of one or two child migrants with relatives already here.