Home Office AI tool may influence immigration decisions, critics say

A Home Office artificial intelligence tool that proposes enforcement action against adult and child migrants could make it too easy for officials to rubberstamp automated life-changing decisions, campaigners have said.

- Robert Booth

As new details of the AI-powered immigration enforcement system emerged, critics called it a "robo-caseworker" that could "encode injustices" because an algorithm is involved in shaping decisions, including returning people to their home countries.

The government insists it delivers efficiencies by prioritising work and that a human remains responsible for each decision. It is being used amid a rising caseload of asylum seekers who are subject to removal action, currently about 41,000 people.

Migrant rights campaigners called for the Home Office to withdraw the system, claiming it was "technology being used to make cruelty and harm more efficient".

A glimpse into the workings of the largely opaque system has become possible after a year-long freedom of information battle, in which redacted manuals and impact assessments were released to the campaign group Privacy International. They also revealed that people whose cases are being processed by the algorithm are not specifically told that AI is involved.

The system is one of several AI programmes UK public authorities are deploying as officials seek greater speed and efficiency. There are calls for greater transparency about government AI use in fields ranging from health to welfare.