Blue Line: Clarification regarding the use of genital examinations to determine age

Release Date: Sunday, July 08 2012, 04:12 PM

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) would like to clarify inaccuracies in today’s Sunday Mail Brisbane and Sunday Tasmanian relating to federal agencies using genital examinations to determine the age of suspected people smugglers and crew.

The AFP was a member of a Commonwealth agency working group that in June 2011 considered and rejected the possibility of using genital examination for age determination purposes.

The AFP has never used, nor sought to use, genital examination as an age determination process for alleged people smugglers or crew.

Genital examinations are not appropriate because of the invasive nature of the procedure.

On 8 July 2011 the Government announced a series of enhanced age determination measures to supplement the prescribed wrist X-ray procedure.  These included taking steps as early as possible to seek information from the individual’s country of origin, such as birth certificates, where age is contested.

The Attorney-General’s Department is the lead agency in relation to age determination matters.

The AFP would encourage members of the media to clarify such matters before publishing.