A new AI facial recognition system that can spot adult migrants pretending to be children will be rolled out next year – to the fury of human rights campaigners.
The new technology is intended to make it easier to find adults trying to ‘game the system’ by getting into in the care system as opposed to the asylum system, often an easier path to staying in the UK.
An IT firm has now been awarded a £322,000 contract by the Home Office to provide ‘an algorithm that can accurately predict the age of a subject’, according to an official notice published today.
Harlow-based Akhter Computers are set to test and develop AI technology to be able to estimate a person’s age by assessing images taken of them at the border.
The technology is expected to be used alongside existing methods of age estimation, with the Home Office saying it had shown “promising performance and accuracy” in initial tests.
But the tecnologyh, which is set to be introduced in mid-2027, has faced criticism from the Human Rights Watch, who want the scheme axed altogether.
The scheme, which will cost £322,000 over three years, comes as small boat migrant crossings of the English Channel and asylum claims continue to rise.
In the year ending June 2025, 111,084 claimed asylum in the UK – an increase of over 14 per cent when compared to the year prior.
A group of people arriving at the Border Security Command compound in Dover, Kent on May 27, 2027
It comes as the Home Office has awarded a contract to a tech firm to develop AI facial recognition to determine the age of migrants arriving at the English Channel
Meanwhile, more than 6,400 migrants claiming to be children were assessed for their age at the border, with nearly half found to be adults in the year ending March 2026, according to the Home Office.
Last year, a report, conducted by the UK government’s independent immigration inspector discovered there were several incidents where both migrant children and adults were classed in the incorrect age group.
It also concluded that it was ‘inevitable that some age assessments will be wrong’ in the absence of a ‘foolproof’ testing method.
It added that the current room for error in age assessments of migrants was ‘a cause for concern’ particularly in incidents where children were denied rights and protections ‘to which they are entitled’.
The Home Office has been testing the technology on various images of people from different gender and ethnicities, including those of asylum seekers, in its system.
However, the results have not yet been used to determine the outcome of any live cases.
The tech is anticipated to be tested in asylum seeker cases at a processing centre in Dover, Western Jet Foil, next year.
Currently, trained immigration enforcement officers carry out age assessment using various procedures such as X-rays, MRI scans and documents.
However the UK government has since determined the AI recognition was the most ‘cost-effective option’ of analysing an asylum seeker’s age.
It has been met with opposition from human rights campaigners, who have called on the Home Office ‘to scrap’ the ‘deeply flawed’ scheme.
But the tech, which is set to be introduced in mid-2027, has faced criticism from the Human Rights Watch, who want the scheme axed altogether
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Anna Bacciarelli, a senior AI researcher at campaign group Human Rights Watch, told the BBC: ‘The government needs to scrap this deeply flawed approach to assessing child refugees.
‘Experimenting with unproven technology to determine whether or not a child should be granted protections they desperately need and are legally entitled to is cruel and unconscionable.
‘In addition to subjecting vulnerable children and young people to a dehumanising process that undermines their human rights, we don’t actually know if facial age estimation works.’
She explained the tech had so far been used in bars and shops but not at migrant processing centres, claiming there was ‘no ethical way’ to go ahead with such plans.
Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Alex Norris, said adult migrants ‘making false age claims have exploited the system and diverted vital support away from children at risk’.
‘That is why we are rolling out AI technology to put a stop to this, ensuring those who game the system are identified, detained and removed without delay, and those who deserve support and protection are given it,’ Norris said.
