MONMOUTH MP David Davies has suggested the UK should not be “naive” in its attitude to welcoming refugees, suggesting adults could be posing as teenage asylum seekers to gain entry to the country.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning (19th October), Mr Davies said that refugees should be given “the benefit of the doubt”, but believes that many of the 14 refugees who arrived into the UK from Calais on Monday “don’t look like children.”

On the programme, Mr Davies said he believes refugees should undergo dental checks to determine if they are over the age of 18.

Mr Davies, who visited Calais last year, said: “Obviously there are lots of desperate people in Calais. We were given the impression that there were many young children who were desperate to get into the UK and that doesn’t seem to have happened.

“What we seem to have to have here is young men who may be under 18 or may be over 18; its very hard to say. That’s why I’ve suggested that perhaps we should use age checks, dental checks, to just verify that because we need to make sure the public have confidence in the system.”

Ruth Allen, the chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers, also speaking on the programme, said: “This clearly needs to be handled incredibly sensitively.

“We’re talking about children and young adults as well who have been through incredible amounts of torture and intrusive medical tests are not necessarily going to be at all appropriate.”

She added that tests could be “really traumatising” and that none of the tests could give 100 per cent accuracy.

The British Dental Association also said imposing dental checks would be “inappropriate” and “unethical”.

Mr Davies added: “We should give the benefit of the doubt but if a test says they’re in their late 20s and they look in their late 20s its possible they’re in their late 20s.

“We mustn’t be naive about this, I mean it’s no good Lily Allen turning up with tears in her eyes and the rest of it. We need to be quite hard nosed here.

Mr Davies added that refugees are “desperate” and they will “say what they have to” to get into the country.