Credit: Hazel Thompson/New York Times

In my article Denmark Has Had Enough of Muslims, I included a photo of hundreds of Muslim refugees on a highway in Denmark on their way to Sweden for asylum. I included in the caption the words "mostly men of military age."

In response, reader Imran Khan pointed to a United Nations report purportedly showing that 50.5 percent of Syrian refugees are women. In addition, Khan also mentioned that the UN determined that "Men ages 18 to 59 comprise about 22 percent of all Syrian refugees."

In the photo I used, women and children are significantly absent. While my caption only referenced one particular photo at one particular border crossing in one particular country, the UN statistic covered all Syrian migrants throughout the Middle East and the European continent.

So yes, as of a few days ago the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) tally of Syrian refugees shows 4,834,880 registered Syrian refugees of which almost 51% are women. Even more striking is that less than 49% of all migrants are 18 or older. Want to read even a worse number? How about 39% of all migrants are 11 years old or younger.

But why is there such a discrepancy in all the photos we see of migrants coming into Europe mostly of men 18 or older?

First, let's understand that migrants lie when they register in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. More than half who registered as children, when they arrive in Europe, turn out to be adults, many in their 30s, with some sporting grey hair and beards (A tip of the turban to blogger Blazing Cat Fur):

Daily Mail UK, 12 May 2016, HALF of refugees claiming to be children in Austria are adults… and many even arrive with ‘grey hair and beards’

Half of all migrants claiming to be children are lying, according to Austrian officials who say the 'juveniles' are sometimes in their 30s and have grey hair and beards.

The unnamed official told Austrian journalists: 'It is completely absurd. We have men turning up here with full beards and grey hair claiming to be children.'

Austrian officials said that of 2,200 asylum seekers claiming to be children, 951 were found to be considerably older following medical tests.

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Very few migrants from Syria, Afghanistan or Nigeria have birth certificates or other identity papers which can be relied upon to give an accurate estimate of their age.

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He added: 'When they tell us that they are children, it instantly gives them the right to have their family join them as they are children. It also gives them better conditions and legal rights especially with regard to their asylum applications.

And so until these migrants arrive in Europe, their status as children is mis-reported in the UNHCR stats.

OK, that explains why we see so many refugees of adult age in Europe. But where are the women?

In the same UNHCR report used by Khan we find a small statistic: less than 10% of all refugees actually left the camps in the Middle East for Europe - so far.

This is what happened: the trek into Europe has its hazards and difficulties, many of which are too much for women and children. Much wiser to have the men go it alone to establish their asylum status and afterwards send for their family. Doesn't that make sense and explain the paucity of females and children in these photos?

There is also another thing to consider: very few migrants have birth certificates or other identity papers and so many are not Syrian refugees at all but come from Nigeria, Afghanistan and other countries. So while many of these men in the photos appear to be Syrian refugees, they certainly are not the registered migrants that the United Nations is talking about.

While some poor, misinformed individuals rely on one particular UN report, they do not realize that the numbers quoted apply to all Syrian refugees, and certainly not the refugees coming into Europe. Since these migrants are not all Syrians, since they're not mostly women, since they might not even be children, since UN stats only talk about registered Syrians mostly in non-European countries - the UN numbers have practically nothing to do with reality in Europe.

The real number in another UN report states that the great majority of Syrian migrants reaching Europe are predominantly adult males:

The Daily Caller, 9 Sep 2015, UN: Migrants Fleeing To Europe Are Predominantly Adult Men

Most of the migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea on their way to Europe are adult men, according to the United Nations.

The number of migrants attempting the dangerous crossing has soared in the past two years, from about 22,000 in 2013 to about 380,000 so far this year. Seventy-two percent of them are adult men, while just 13 percent are women and 15 percent are children, the U.N. has calculated, based on reports from governments and the media.

See that Imran? Two reports from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees regarding Syrian refugees but only one applies to the photos under discussion. And UNHCR agrees with my assessment. But nice try.