Rights groups are criticizing the British government's plan to use AI facial-recognition technology to screen migrant ages, citing risks of racial bias and the misclassification of children.

Rights groups and children's charities have warned that the British government's plan to implement AI-powered facial age-estimation technology for migrant screening will endanger children. Critics argue that the systems are flawed and racially biased, potentially leading to more children being incorrectly processed as adults. The Home Office maintains that the technology is being explored to make age assessment processes more robust and consistent.

Concerns over accuracy and bias

Maddie Harris of the Humans for Rights Network stated that the technology is an experimental process that fails to address existing issues in border assessments. According to Home Office figures cited by the Helen Bamber Foundation, 755 children were incorrectly identified as adults upon arrival in the UK in 2025. The government has acknowledged that even its most effective systems can have a 30-month margin of error. Critics, including the tech monitor Foxglove, have alleged that the technology relies on racist bias. An investigation by Lighthouse Reports in June found that the software developed by the German firm Cognitec showed a tendency to overpredict the ages of minors from sub-Saharan Africa.

Impact on unaccompanied minors

Advocates warn that misclassifying children as adults exposes them to detention, removal, and placement in adult accommodation, where they may face violence. Experts also note that physical indicators of trauma, malnutrition, and dehydration from difficult journeys can alter a person's appearance, further complicating the accuracy of facial-recognition tools. Petra Molnar of the Migration and Tech Monitor compared the use of these systems to discredited 19th-century phrenology, arguing that categorizing individuals based on physical features is an unreliable method for determining age.