Mitilini I was 17. Here they put 19 on the red card.48 The police looked at me and said ‘you are not 17, you are two years older.’ I didn’t say anything.”49 Children who claim to be adults Children may declare themselves and be registered as adults even if it is beyond any doubt that they are underage. Stating the opposite, the chief of police in Samos assured us that such registrations would not occur: “In some cases children are small and they declare to be older to be released earlier. We don’t accept that.”50 Yet, 14-year-old Hussein S. declared himself as an adult to Samos police and was registered as 18 years old, even though he looked very immature and there was no doubt that he was underage.51 Some children are of the view that a higher age works to their advantage. Sixteenyear-old Hamed P., who was registered as a 21-year-old told us, “My friend told me it’s better to be 21 because I could get a work permit because nobody will help me here. I work every day now in a beer factory. First the owner said I was underage. When I showed him my red card he said ‘ok, you can start working.’”52 The lack of any formal age assessment procedures also means that there is no legal way to challenge and rectify an arbitrary or wrong assessment. Although a social worker told us that a child could change the age if a doctor certified that he or she was underage, this does not seem to be an official procedure or one that is known to practitioners. When Hussein S. applied for asylum he was told by his lawyer there was no way to change his age: “when I applied for asylum they took the same age. I told the lawyer that I was 14 but the lawyer told me that now it was too late and that the police 48 “Red card” is the commonly used to describe the red-colored identification document for asylum seekers 49 Human Rights Watch interview with Sami F., Athens, May 28, 2008. 50 Human Rights Watch interview with Ioannis Kotsampasi, chief of police Samos, May 30, 2008. 51 Human Rights Watch interview with Hussein S., Samos, May 30, 2008. 52 Human Rights Watch interview with Hamed P., Athens, June 4, 2008. 23 Human Rights Watch December 2008