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UK Tests AI Face Scans to Age-Check Asylum Seekers
The £322,000 contract will test facial age estimation on live cases after trials found promising accuracy, officials said.
- The Home Office awarded Harlow-based Akhter Computers Ltd a £322,000 contract this week to develop a facial age-estimation tool, which will be trialled at Western Jet Foil in Dover next year.
- Minister Alex Norris defended the move, stating the tool aims to identify adults "attempting to game the system" after data showed 43% of migrants claiming to be children were found to be adults.
- Human Rights Watch researcher Anna Bacciarelli urged the government to scrap the "unproven technology," warning it subjects vulnerable young people to a "dehumanising process."
- Last year, an independent immigration inspector found that without a "foolproof" test, inaccurate age assessments are "inevitable," noting past cases where adults were wrongly classified alongside minors.
- Border Force officers currently assess age using documents, X-rays, and MRI scans; the new tool will provide an additional resource for staff when a person's age is in doubt.
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From next year, AI software will determine the age of asylum seekers based on photos taken at the British border. The aim is to detect adults posing as children, but critics are calling on the government to scrap the “unproven technology”.
Migrant crisis: Asylum seekers' ages to be checked using AI tool in bid to curb fake under-18 claims
The Home Office is set to begin using AI facial recognition tests to estimate the age of asylum seekers claiming to be children. Harlow-based IT company Akhter Computers has been awarded a £322,000 contract to provide "an algorithm that can accurately predict the age of a subject". It added the Home Office could use the technology to determine the age of people who lack "verifiable identity documents", such as those arriving in the UK on small b…
·London, United Kingdom
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Total News Sources16
Leaning Left1Leaning Right7Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution64% Right
Bias Distribution
- 64% of the sources lean Right
64% Right
C 27%
R 64%
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