UK to Deploy AI Facial Recognition for Age Verification of Asylum Seekers

UK to use facial recognition AI to stop adult migrants posing as children

BBC News understands the government plans to use existing technology that was created for online retailers that sell age-restricted products. Border Security and Asylum Minster Angela Eagle said that the AI is trained on millions of images of faces and was "able to produce an age estimate with a known degree of accuracy for an individual whose age is unknown or disputed". Facial Age Estimation offers a "potentially rapid and simple means" for testing judgements when assessing age, Eagle said. Currently immigration officials and social workers have to produce an assessment of the actual age of migrants claiming to be under 18, but both the Home Office and the independent immigration inspector have said accurately assessing an age is "challenging". David Bolt, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, said the absence of a "foolproof test" of age it was "inevitable that some age assessments will be wrong". In a sample of 100 case files, inspectors found that of 38 people who had been initially assessed as an adult by the Home Office, 22 were later assessed by a local authority to be under 18. Mr Bolt's report was prepared before the government announced its plans for AI facial recognition. The government said it would trial the technology ahead of an excepted roll out in 2026. A tender for providers of the technology will be launched in August. Similar technology is already used in the private sector by banks and online retailers to verify the ages of customers buying products such as knives. The government is now encouraging the companies who have pioneered that technology to take part in a Home Office procurement process. A senior Home Office source said they hoped to "leverage the power of the private sector" by working with companies who are "investing in this in the billions".

UK border officials to use AI to verify ages of child asylum seekers

Trial of technology comes as official report warns existing system has been failing for at least a decade Officials are to start using artificial intelligence to help estimate the age of asylum seekers who say they are children. Angela Eagle, the immigration minister, said on Tuesday the government would test technology that judges a person's age based on their facial features. It is the latest example of Labour ministers turning to AI to help solve problems with public services without spending significant amounts of money. The decision was announced on the same day that David Bolt, the chief inspector of borders and immigration, published a highly critical report into the haphazard way in which officials estimated the age of new arrivals. Eagle said in a written statement to parliament: "We have concluded that the most cost-effective option to pursue is likely to be facial age estimation, whereby AI technology - trained on millions of images where an individual's age is verifiable - is able to produce an age estimate with a known degree of accuracy for an individual whose age is unknown or disputed. "In a situation where those involved in the age assessment process are unsure whether an individual is aged over or under 18, or do not accept the age an individual is claiming to be, facial age estimation offers a potentially rapid and simple means to test their judgments against the estimates produced by the technology." Eagle is commissioning a pilot scheme to test the technology, with a view to integrating it into official age verification checks over the course of next year. John Lewis announced earlier this year it would become the first major UK retailer to use facial age estimation to help approve online knife sales. The Home Office already uses AI in other areas, such as helping to detect sham marriages. However, that tool has been criticised for disproportionately flagging certain nationalities. Despite concerns about AI tools exacerbating bias in government decision-making, ministers are exploring other potential uses. Peter Kyle, the science and technology secretary, announced on Monday a deal with OpenAI, the company that runs ChatGPT, to explore deploying AI in areas including justice, security and education. Bolt's report said that the mental health of young asylum seekers was suffering because of failures in the age verification systems, especially at Dover, where small boat arrivals are processed. "Many of the concerns about policy and practice that have been raised for more than a decade remain unanswered," Bolt warned, saying arduous conditions at the Dover processing facility could make it harder to accurately estimate ages. He added: "I have listened to young people who felt disbelieved and dismissed by the Home Office, whose hopes have been crushed, and whose mental health has suffered." His findings echo a report by the Refugee Council, which found that at least 1,300 children had been incorrectly deemed to be adults over an 18-month period. Last month researchers at the London School of Economics and the University of Bedfordshire recommended that the Home Office be stripped of the power to make decisions relating to lone child asylum seekers.

Asylum seekers who lie about their age to be targeted with new checks

Asylum seekers who lie about being children are to be targeted with new AI face checks. Dame Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, said it was the "most cost-effective" way to check whether a migrant was falsely claiming to be under 18 to boost their chances of entering the UK. The move comes as a report by the immigration watchdog revealed that up to three-quarters of cases where age was disputed saw children wrongly classed as adults, while a quarter who claimed to be children were judged to be over 18. David Bolt, independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, said it was "inevitable" some decisions would be wrong without a "foolproof test" of chronological age. He said this was "clearly a cause for concern, especially where a child is denied the rights and protections to which they are entitled". Currently initial age decisions are made by Home Office staff based on a migrant's physical appearance and demeanour. Ministers hope to roll out facial-age estimation for migrants arriving by small boats and lorries next year, subject to further testing of the technology. Dame Angela said the technology, trained on millions of images of people with confirmed ages, was able to produce an age estimate with a known degree of accuracy for an individual whose age was unknown or disputed "Early assessments suggest that facial-age estimation could produce workable results much quicker than other potential methods of scientific or technological age assessment, such as bone X-rays or MRI scans, but at a fraction of the cost, and with no requirement for a physical medical procedure or accompanying medical supervision," she said.