NATIONAL newspapers and a Tory MP have been condemned after questioning the age of child migrants.

The British Dental Association (BDA) said demands by David Davies for testing on those heading to Britain from the Jungle refugee camp was "inappropriate and unethical".

Mr Davies, chairman of the Commons Welsh Affairs select committee, said mandatory dental checks would reassure the public the system was not being exploited.

After the arrival of 14 teenagers to the UK from Calais on Monday, the Monmouth MP said they "don't look like 'children".

"I hope British hospitality is not being abused", he added.

The BDA has disputed claims that dental radiographs can accurately say if someone has reached 18 years of age.

Meanwhile, a number of national newspapers have published articles seeming to suggest they are questioning whether those children being allows into the UK are as young as they claim to be.

In response, users on social media sites such as Twitter have been posting pictures of themselves when they were youngsters, in a bid to show how it can be difficult to guess someone's age.

The Jungle refugee camp could be closed imminently after a French court rejected an appeal from aid groups to delay the clearance.

French authorities are expected to empty the migrant camp in Calais in the coming weeks and dismantle it by the start of winter.

A Lille court has rejected a request from aid groups to postpone the closure, arguing that authorities are not ready to relocate its residents.

Charity groups warned that many of the migrants do not want to stay in France and may set up camp elsewhere to continue trying to cross the English Channel to Britain.

The French interior and housing ministers welcomed the court's ruling and said the camp should be dismantled before winter sets in.

Mr Davies defended his stance, saying the authorities should not be "naive" about the issue of adults trying to get into the UK.

He said refugees who had been through an ordeal to reach the UK would not be concerned about having their age checked.

"We must not be naive about this. It's no good Lily Allen turning up with tears in her eyes and all the rest of it - we need to be quite hard-nosed here," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"People are desperate, I understand that, and they will say what they need to say to get in.

"When I was in the camp in Calais there were caravans with notices on saying 'Come here, we will coach you in what to say to get into the UK'."

He added: "People in Britain, I think, want to help children but we don't want to be taken for a free ride either by people who seem to have got to the front of the queue even though they clearly look, in some cases, a lot older than 18."

Mr Davies said he did not accept that it was "intrusive" to take an X-ray of a migrant.

"Someone who is willing to throw themselves on to an electrified rail line or jump into a moving lorry isn't going to be terribly worried about having an X-ray."

British Association of Social Workers chief executive Ruth Allen said photographs were "not necessarily terribly accurate".

She added: "If there are issues about the age of the people who have come in this first cohort, then that can be looked at.

"The key issue that we need to be looking at is how do we bring the hundreds of children who are in the camp, who have a right to be here under various conventions and obligations; and how do we ensure that there is now a process to get all of those brought into the UK?"