An Afghan teenager has told a High Court judge that he travelled to Britain after the Taliban tried to recruit him as a suicide bomber.
The youth, who now works in a fruit and vegetable shop in England, said his father had been told to deliver him for "initiation" or "the entire family would be killed", Mr Justice Fulford heard.
He was giving evidence at a High Court hearing in London as the judge tried to establish his age.
Social workers employed by the London Borough of Croydon decided that the boy was born in January 1996, after interviewing him following his arrival in England.
The teenager - who was not named - said he was born in August 1997 and took legal action after claiming that the local authority had wrongly failed to provide him with full-time education.
Mr Justice Fulford ruled against the youth, concluding that the social workers' assessment was probably right and he was now 16.
The judge said the teenager applied for asylum in June 2011 after arriving in England in the "back of a lorry".
He said the boy was a Pashtun who came from Laghman Province in Afghanistan.
The judge said the youngster's father was a member of the Taliban and his older brother was under arrest in Pakistan as a result of being a member of the Taliban.
"His case is that his father was told by his supervisors to deliver him for 'initiation' into the Taliban," the judge said.
"He suggested the Taliban wanted to use him as a suicide bomber - his father purportedly said this to his mother."
The judge added: "He stated that he did not want to kill himself in this way.
"(His) account is that his father was told that if he did not deliver his son to the Taliban within a week, the entire family would be killed."
He said the teenager had told social workers that "his life was in danger and difficulty because his father wanted him to train with the Taliban and learn to make bombs".
The boy said he "did not want to shed the blood of innocent Afghans" and that his mother decided that he should leave after becoming "so worried for his safety".
He estimated that his journey to the UK had taken more than a month.
Mr Justice Fulford was not asked to rule on any issues relating to how long the teenager might stay in the UK.
He heard evidence at a hearing earlier this month and delivered a written ruling on Wednesday.