The United Kingdom is moving forward with what may well be one of the most controversial uses of technology in current asylum policies. The UK government’s Home Office plans to implement the use of artificial intelligence to predict the age of minors seeking asylum at the country’s borders starting from 2027. The technology, named Facial Age Estimation (FAE), analyzes the face of minors who enter UK ports on small boats in Dover and gives their age in just a few seconds. The use of FAE technology was not intended for determining the age of minors but rather for online age verification, such as verifying if they are old enough to view certain websites.
The decision has met with harsh condemnation from human rights groups, legal scholars, and a consortium of over 100 organizations that work with refugee children. The arguments they raise include that the AI algorithm used is racially prejudiced, scientifically flawed for teens, and would definitely lead to children not getting protection but being detained and even jailed as adults.
The Technology and Its Planned Rollout
What Is Facial Age Estimation?
Facial Age Estimation is the rebranding of an existing AI-based facial recognition tool used for commercial online age verification purposes into a new tool to be used for estimating ages of people based on facial features analysis. The tool quickly takes a person’s face and estimates his/her age. Facial Age Estimation is expected to be used by the Home Office to assess the age of unaccompanied asylum seeking children – young people who have arrived in the UK without parents/guardians and whose age is unclear. It will be used on migrants arriving via small boats and lorries with the plan to introduce facial age estimation by the middle of 2026 after the trial period. A £322,000 contract over three years was given to Harlow-based IT company Akhter Computers Ltd to develop the technology.
Government Rationale
The government frames the rollout as a necessary measure to prevent adults from falsely claiming to be minors. Border Security Minister Dame Angela Eagle stated that the technology
“has been identified as the ‘most cost-effective option’ for cases where age is uncertain or contested”.
A Home Office official, identified as Norris, explained:
“That is why we are implementing AI technology to address this issue, ensuring that those who manipulate the system are identified, detained, and removed promptly, while providing the necessary support and protection to those who truly need it”.
The Home Office argues the tool will make it easier to identify adult migrants “attempting to game the system”.
Internal Tests Reveal Racial Bias and Dangerous Errors
The Home Office’s Own Findings
Even with such confidence shown by the government, tests carried out within the Home Office proved that the technology is less reliable for certain categories of individuals, especially for Africans. Reports and audits conducted internally as well as externally have proven that Facial Age Estimation Technology is less effective when applied to migrants from Sub-Saharan African regions, and as a result, it is said to contain “baked-in racial bias”. It is especially problematic when applied to adolescents aged 16 to 18 years old, who are most likely to seek asylum alone. For instance, a girl of age 14 could be assessed as an adult through this tool.
Scientific Advisors Warn of Political Rush
Scientists advising the Home Office say that the adoption of the technology by the government is being done in a hurry for political reasons. According to them, there was an attempt to disband a committee in order not to receive criticisms regarding the weaknesses of the technology. This could mean that there is a chance that the adoption of the technology is more politically motivated rather than evidence based. According to campaigners and independent experts, the technology was never developed for dealing with children seeking asylum, making it unsuitable for use in such situations.
Human Rights Watch Denounces the Policy
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has launched a sharp condemnation of the UK’s plan. In a report published on 18 June 2026 titled “The UK’s Discriminatory AI Experiment on Child Refugees,” HRW describes the initiative as a dangerous experiment that threatens the human rights of children.
HRW stated:
“The UK Home Office is pushing ahead with plans to use AI technology to guess the age of young people arriving at UK borders to seek asylum, starting in 2027. Yet the Home Office’s own tests found the technology performed worse on certain groups of people, notably Africans. The plans severely endanger the human rights of children seeking asylum and should be scrapped”.
As HRW stated in its earlier report in July 2025, AI facial recognition technology was not created with child refugees in mind and is bound to make catastrophic mistakes that could change their lives forever. The key point here is that one mistake could mean that a whole life gets changed irreparably.
Charities and NGOs Warn of Adult Detention for Children
A Coalition of 100+ Organisations
Over 100 organizations devoted to the welfare of refugee children have raised serious concerns regarding the process. According to the coalition, there is a danger that the introduction of the technology will only increase the number of children being placed in adult detention centers or even in adult prisons due to the mistaken classification of age. The situation becomes very dangerous for young girls coming from Sub-Saharan Africa as they have the highest rate of errors in the system.
Open Letter to Halt Rollout
An open letter signed by sixty organisations has been sent requesting the Home Office to put a stop to the roll-out of FAE. This has been done based on certain inherent flaws, discrimination, and inaccuracy of the technology, particularly when it comes to the age category between 16 and 18 years – the category which is the most vulnerable because of the lack of guardianship. It is said that FAE does not meet the purposes it is meant to serve and, therefore, it represents a risk for children’s safety and rights. One of the signatories to this letter is Right to Remain, which considers FAE a tool which has been repurposed from age verification technologies into making decisions which affect child protection.
Legal Experts Say Non-Disclosure of AI Use Is Likely Unlawful
Open Rights Group Legal Opinion
On 15 March 2026, the Open Rights Group published a legal opinion stating that the Home Office’s failure to inform asylum applicants that AI tools are being used in their assessments is likely unlawful. The opinion highlights serious procedural fairness and transparency concerns.
The legal opinion states:
“The Home Office’s failure to inform asylum applicants that AI tools are being used in their assessments is likely to be unlawful”.
This raises questions about whether the policy complies with UK law, including data protection and fairness obligations.
If applicants are not told that AI is being used to guess their age, they cannot challenge the result, request alternative evidence, or understand how the decision was made. This undermines fundamental principles of due process and transparency in asylum decisions.
From Announcement to Mid-2027 Rollout
The policy is progressing rapidly after its first announcement. On 22 July 2025, the UK government announced that it will implement facial scanning through AI technologies to ascertain whether an asylum seeker is below the age of 18. HRW issued a statement in the same month, labeling the project as an experiment on asylum-seeking children. The UK government was to tender out contracts in August 2025 with trials taking place later in the year and implementation in 2026. By May 2026, the BBC reports that a £322,000 contract had been signed with Akhter Computers Ltd for 2027.
On 18 June 2026, HRW released its comprehensive report that labeled the policy as discriminatory and dangerous. Meanwhile, according to The Independent, the Home Office had deployed the technology despite warnings of racial discrimination on the basis of some internal documents and reports, on the very same day. More than 100 organizations had already sounded the warning bell in the previous weeks.
Why This Matters for International Human Rights and Asylum Policy
Not only is this practice carried out in the UK domestically, but it also fits into a wider trend of the utilization of automation systems in immigration and border control with no transparency, accountability, and independence of control. The problem may be that when these systems exhibit racial biases and scientific inaccuracies, they violate human rights principles, in particular, the principle of non-discrimination of children.
Moreover, this policy poses several queries on how technological tools can be used when making decisions regarding basic human rights. The age of the applicant is a crucial aspect for asylum seekers, as this is what determines whether a person is regarded as a minor who will receive special treatment and protection, or an adult, who may be detained and deported. It is contradictory to use such an AI tool that incorrectly classifies minors as adults, particularly female ones from Sub-Saharan Africa.