A facial recognition tool is planned to be used at Britain’s borders next year to detect adult asylum seekers posing as children, writes the BBC.
A company has been selected in a competition to develop and test the technology, which will help determine a person’s age based on a photograph taken at the border. The Home Office has indicated that it will make it easier to identify adult migrants trying to circumvent the system. Initial trials have shown promising accuracy and performance.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has called on the government to abandon the plan, calling it “untested technology” that will threaten the rights of vulnerable children to receive the protection they are entitled to. Minor migrants who are not accompanied by an adult end up in the childcare system, rather than the asylum seeker system, making it easier for them to stay in Britain.
The decision to use AI comes as the number of people crossing the English Channel in small boats and claiming asylum in the UK is increasing. Between June 2024 and June 2025, 111,084 people claimed asylum in the UK, a 14% increase on the year before. In the year to March 2026,
more than 6,400 migrants identified themselves as children when crossing the border, and 43% of them turned out to be adults.
A report last year by the UK government’s independent immigration inspector revealed cases where adult migrants were registered as children, and also cases where children were mistakenly registered as adults. The report states that in the absence of clear verification methods, situations where assessments may be incorrect are inevitable. This is certainly a cause for concern, especially in cases where children are denied protection.
The government announced plans to use AI last year. Since then, the Home Office has been exploring the possibilities of using the technology, and this week a contract was signed with Akhter Computers Ltd.
The contract will see the technology tested and developed to be ready for use by mid-2027.
Border Security and Asylum Minister Alex Norris said adult migrants who misrepresent their age were abusing the system and depriving children of the help they need. He said this was why the use of AI was being pushed forward.
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