4 Asylum Seekers Arrested for Sex Assault on 13-Year-Old...

Four Afghan asylum seekers have been arrested over claims that they sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in a public swimming pool.

The youths, aged 14 to 17, are alleged to have attacked the girl while they were on a supervised visit to a leisure centre.

It is not known whether their 'carer' was in the water at the time.

After the victim complained to police, officers studied CCTV footage from the leisure centre and arranged for the youths to attend a police station for questioning.

There they were arrested and released on police bail. All four deny any wrongdoing.

The alleged attack happened at the Larkfield Leisure Centre in Aylesford, Kent.

The Afghans, who arrived in the UK as 'unaccompanied minors' and speak little English, live 15 miles away in a residential unit for young asylum seekers in the countryside near Staplehurst.

It is in a particularly remote area and few people know its exact whereabouts. Locals claim many of the 'boys' in the unit, which houses up to 20 young asylum seekers, are much older than they claim to be.

Many young refugees are suspected of lying about their ages because unaccompanied minors are given better treatment and support than adult asylum seekers.

Almost 3,000 unaccompanied children apply for asylum in the UK each year, from countries including Afghanistan and Iran, but more than 2,500 other applications end up in disputes over age.

Some social workers have been criticised for relying 'too heavily on physical appearance or socially constructed ideas of appropriate behaviour to determine age'.

Three years ago the Government unveiled plans to make young asylum seekers undergo x-rays of their teeth and wrist bones to try to assess their age. But they were condemned as 'unethical and ineffective' by medical specialists and children's campaigners.

The residential centre where the four sex attack suspects live is not marked on the map or signposted from the road and is more than ten minutes' drive from the nearest village. Even the sign identifying the unit cannot be seen from the road.

One neighbour, who lives opposite the centre, said he doubted any of the asylum seekers were genuinely under 18.

He said: 'They turn up in England with no passports and claiming to be teenagers.

'Then they get put in these centres and disappear. It's a nice little way to get into the country.'

The 54-year-old surveyor said the unit, built some years ago, was housed in a row of converted pig sties. He claimed no local residents were told about it in advance.

'The first we heard of it was when they put a sign on the gate about the plans for the building,' he said.

'But by that point they'd already spent £2million converting it and the asylum seekers had moved in.

'If any of us wanted to build anything, we'd have to apply for planning permission and inform all our neighbours. But the council obviously plays by different rules.'

The man said none of the neighbours were happy about having the centre on their doorstep. 'We live in the middle of nowhere and they are just across the road,' he said.

'The nearest policeman is half an hour away. It does make you feel vulnerable.

'You don't know who's over there and what the potential risk is. There could be young girls camping in those fields, unaware of the danger they are in.'

He said the allegation that the asylum seekers had attacked a schoolgirl was worrying.
'It puts a new slant on the matter. It's very disconcerting,' he added.

Kent Police confirmed that officers were investigating a report of a sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl at Larkfield Leisure Centre on March 25, between 5 and 6.30pm.

A spokesman added: 'Four teenage boys, aged between 14 and 17, have been arrested in connection with this incident. They are currently on police bail while further inquiries are made.'
Police sources confirmed that all are Afghans.

The sources said the allegations were being taken 'very seriously' by police. A police doctor has examined the alleged victim, who has also been interviewed by specially-trained officers.