The use of AI facial recognition technology to determine the ages of child asylum seekers in the UK threatens to result in more of them being deemed to be adults, campaigners have warned.
The Home Office this month began inviting companies to bid to provide the technology with a view to rolling it out over the course of 2026, as Britain continues to deal with migrants arriving by small boats.
The Border Security and Asylum Minister Angela Eagle has said using AI is the “most cost-effective option” for fixing flaws in the system that assesses the ages of unaccompanied asylum seekers.
This has led to hundreds of them being wrongly deemed to be over 18 and placed in accommodation with adults where they are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. But refugee and human rights groups are warning that AI technology could lead to even less accurate evaluations than ones carried out visually.
Kamena Dorling, director of policy at the Helen Bamber Foundation, told The National the government’s proposals to use AI are “concerning, unless significant safeguards are put in place”.
“Existing evidence has found that AI can be even less accurate and more biased than human decision-making when judging a person’s age, with similar patterns of errors,” she said.
Anna Bacciarelli, senior AI researcher at Human Rights Watch, said so far technology has only been trialled in a handful of supermarkets and websites to assess if customers buying age-restricted goods are under 25, not whether a person is over 18.
“Experimenting with unproven technology to determine whether a child should be granted protections they desperately need and are legally entitled to is cruel and unconscionable,” she told The National.
All asylum seekers who arrive in the UK on their own and give their age as being under 18 are subject to an initial assessment by immigration officers when they are taken ashore at Dover.
They are then also assessed by social workers from local councils, who have responsibility for housing unaccompanied asylum seeker children and placing them in education. They are meant to go through a formal process known as a Merton Assessment, although in many cases that doesn't happen.
A report by the UK’s chief inspector of borders and immigration found the age assessment process was “perfunctory” and that this has led to children being put into adult accommodation. The Helen Bamber Foundation revealed in 2024 that at least 681 children had been wrongly assessed to be adults.
Legal challenges in the courts by asylum seekers wrongly deemed adults have exposed the problems of visual assessments. In one case, a Syrian male was deemed by officials to be 28, turned out to be 17.
In another case, a shaving manual produced by Gillette was used to determine that a child was an adult. These children were forced to share rooms with strangers in adult asylum accommodation, and many are now also ending up in adult prisons after being prosecuted for arriving illegally.
Algorithms cannot grasp how malnutrition, dehydration, sleep deprivation, and exposure to salt water during a dangerous sea crossing might profoundly alter a child’s face
Anna Bacciarelli
The Helen Bamber Foundation cites academic studies which cast doubt on the ability of AI to accurately assess age. In one of them, researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel found in a 2022 study that when it comes to assessing age, “as it turns out AI platforms make many of the same errors as humans, although to a larger extent”.
Ms Bacciarelli said the turn to AI to assess the ages of asylum seeker children comes after governments in Europe and tried various other methods, such as measuring bone density, which have not lived up to expectations. “What we're really worried about with the introduction of AI is that it’s a quick-fix solution to a complex problem,” she said.
She believes the technology that could be used was not designed for children who are seeking asylum.
She explained that algorithms used age assessment to identify patterns in the distance between nostrils and the texture of skin. But these cannot account for children who have “aged prematurely from trauma and violence”.
“It doesn't take into account the particular facial features of someone arriving in this country by boat. They may have had their face weathered by exposure to salt water, may have experienced a lot of trauma, not slept and suffered malnutrition. Algorithms cannot grasp how malnutrition, dehydration, sleep deprivation and exposure to salt water during a dangerous sea crossing might profoundly alter a child’s face.”
Ms Dorling said that even if AI is introduced, the final decision on whether an asylum seeker is a child or not should always rest with trained social workers and properly trained border staff.
“Replacing poor human decision-making with facial recognition technology that is not sufficiently accurate will not address the current safeguarding crisis.
The Home Office has this week announced the expansion of live facial recognition technology as a "targeted" crackdown on high harm offenders.
A Home Office representative said: “Robust age assessments are a vital tool in maintaining border security.
"We will start to modernise that process in the coming months through the testing of fast and effective AI Age Estimation technology at key Border Force locations, with a view to fully integrate Facial Age Estimation into the current age assessment system over the course of 2026.”
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if you go
The flights
Emirates have direct flights from Dubai to Glasgow from Dh3,115. Alternatively, if you want to see a bit of Edinburgh first, then you can fly there direct with Etihad from Abu Dhabi.
The hotel
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Located in the heart of Mackintosh's Glasgow, the Dakota Deluxe is perhaps the most refined hotel anywhere in the city. Doubles from Dh850
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Events and tours
There are various Mackintosh specific events throughout 2018 – for more details and to see a map of his surviving designs see glasgowmackintosh.com
For walking tours focussing on the Glasgow Style, see the website of the Glasgow School of Art.
More information
For ideas on planning a trip to Scotland, visit www.visitscotland.com
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
SPECS
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More on Quran memorisation:
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
More from Neighbourhood Watch
Which honey takes your fancy?
Al Ghaf Honey
The Al Ghaf tree is a local desert tree which bears the harsh summers with drought and high temperatures. From the rich flowers, bees that pollinate this tree can produce delicious red colour honey in June and July each year
Sidr Honey
The Sidr tree is an evergreen tree with long and strong forked branches. The blossom from this tree is called Yabyab, which provides rich food for bees to produce honey in October and November. This honey is the most expensive, but tastiest
Samar Honey
The Samar tree trunk, leaves and blossom contains Barm which is the secret of healing. You can enjoy the best types of honey from this tree every year in May and June. It is an historical witness to the life of the Emirati nation which represents the harsh desert and mountain environments
Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
Western Region Asia Cup T20 Qualifier
Sun Feb 23 – Thu Feb 27, Al Amerat, Oman
The two finalists advance to the Asia qualifier in Malaysia in August
Group A
Bahrain, Maldives, Oman, Qatar
Group B
UAE, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia
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RESULTS
Cagliari 5-2 Fiorentina
Udinese 0-0 SPAL
Sampdoria 0-0 Atalanta
Lazio 4-2 Lecce
Parma 2-0 Roma
Juventus 1-0 AC Milan
RedCrow Intelligence Company Profile
Started: 2016
Founders: Hussein Nasser Eddin, Laila Akel, Tayeb Akel
Based: Ramallah, Palestine
Sector: Technology, Security
# of staff: 13
Investment: $745,000
Investors: Palestine’s Ibtikar Fund, Abu Dhabi’s Gothams and angel investors
Karwaan
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Akarsh Khurana
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
Third Test
Day 3, stumps
India 443-7 (d) & 54-5 (27 ov)
Australia 151
India lead by 346 runs with 5 wickets remaining
Profile Periscope Media
Founder: Smeetha Ghosh, one co-founder (anonymous)
Launch year: 2020
Employees: four – plans to add another 10 by July 2021
Financing stage: $250,000 bootstrap funding, approaching VC firms this year
Investors: Co-founders
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Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
