UK Awards £322,000 AI Age-Check Contract for Asylum Seekers as 43% Assessed Were Adults
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · May 29
UK Awards £322,000 AI Age-Check Contract for Asylum Seekers as 43% Assessed Were Adults
4 articles · Updated · BBC.com · May 29
Akhter Computers won a £322,000, three-year Home Office contract to further develop and test facial age-estimation software, with live trials due next year at Dover's Western Jet Foil centre before a mid-2027 rollout.
Home Office data showed more than 6,400 migrants claiming to be children were age-assessed in the year to March 2026, and 43% were found to be adults, driving the push for an extra screening tool.
The system would analyze border photographs to support officers when a person's age is in doubt; officials say earlier testing across ethnicities and genders showed promising accuracy, though results have not yet been used in live decisions.
Human Rights Watch and the British Association of Social Workers oppose the plan, warning the technology is unproven and could wrongly deny vulnerable children the protections and care they are entitled to.
The dispute comes as UK asylum claims reached 111,084 in the year to June 2025, with inspectors already warning that no age-assessment method is foolproof and both adults and children have been misclassified.
With AI age estimates having a two-year error margin, how can the UK justify its use on vulnerable children?
When AI and officers 'co-produce' decisions on asylum, who is accountable for life-altering errors?