REFUGEE charities accused the Home Office today of attempting to deport unaccompanied minors to Rwanda.

The groups claim there is a “worrying pattern” of asylum-seekers who are under the age of 18 being classed as adults by the government.

Care4Calais is currently engaged in an age dispute with the Home Office over two teenage boys who have been issued with notices of removal.

While the boys say they are 16, the Home Office claims they are 23 and 26 respectively.

“It is essential that proper age assessments are done before any deportation takes place,” the charity said in a statement, pledging to use its lawyers to challenge the notices.

“One (of the) 16-year-old (boys) saw his brother killed in front of him when his village was raided in Sudan.

“He escaped and went back later to find the whole village gone.”

Love146 UK campaigns manager Daniel Sohege told The Guardian the charity is seeing children “as young as 14 being incorrectly age-assessed as 23.”

He said: “The number of children we have seen who have just had 1999 put down as their date of birth when they are clearly under 18 is highly concerning, and putting young people at risk.”

Lauren Starkey, a social worker for the charity, told the newspaper: “It is not within the realm of possibility that anyone, especially someone trained in child protection, could look at the children we have seen and believe they are in their 20s.”

The Home Office did not immediately comment on the claims.

Previously, the Home Office said it will not remove any person from Britain if it is “unsafe or inappropriate” to do so, and denied that unaccompanied minors will be among those sent to Rwanda as part of the government’s scheme to process migrants offshore.

And Home Secretary Priti Patel said she is “absolutely determined” that Britain will send migrants to Rwanda despite the prospect of legal challenges being mounted by human rights groups.

The Home Office has begun formally notifying migrants of their removal to Rwanda, with the first deportation flight expected to depart on June 14.

The government described the move as the “final administrative step” in its partnership with the east African nation, whereby people who are deemed to have entered Britain illegally will be sent thousands of miles away.