An AI facial recognition tool will be deployed at UK borders next year to estimate a person’s age from border photographs. A software company has been awarded a contract to develop and test the technology. The Home Office says it will help identify adult migrants attempting to game the system, citing promising performance and accuracy from initial testing. Human Rights Watch urges scrapping the scheme, calling it unproven technology that could undermine protections for vulnerable children. Unaccompanied child migrants are processed through the care system rather than the asylum system, which can make staying easier. Home Office data shows many migrants claiming to be children are age assessed at the border, with a large share found to be adults. An independent immigration inspector previously warned that without a foolproof test, some assessments will be wrong, affecting rights and protections.
"An AI facial recognition tool that aims to detect adult migrants posing as children will be deployed at the UK's borders next year. A software company has been awarded a contract to develop and test the technology, which will estimate a person's age by analysing photographs of them taken at the border. The Home Office says the technology will make it easier to identify adult migrants "attempting to game the system", after initial testing indicated "promising performance and accuracy"."
"Human Rights Watch urged the government to scrap the scheme, describing it as "unproven technology" that will undermine the protections vulnerable children are entitled to. Unaccompanied child migrants are processed through the care system rather than the asylum system, which can make it easier to stay in the country. The decision to use the software comes after years of heightened levels of people crossing the English Channel in small boats and claiming asylum at the border."
"In the year ending March 2026, more than 6,400 migrants claiming to be children were age assessed at the border, with 43% found to be adults, according to Home Office data. A report carried out by the UK government's independent immigration inspector last year found cases where adult migrants had been classified as children - and cases where child migrants had been wrongly classified as adults."
"The report said in the absence of a "foolproof" test, it was "inevitable that some age assessments will be wrong, which is clearly a cause for concern, especially where a child is denied the rights and protections to which they are entitled". The government announced plans to use AI facial recognition technology to combat this problem last year."
Read at www.bbc.com
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