Borders minister Dame Angela Eagle has announced that a trial of AI software will be used to assess whether asylum seekers are children as a new report found kids were ‘pressured’ into saying they were over 18
AI will be used to assess how old asylum seekers are following an alarming string of failings, it has been announced.
A report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) found children were being “pressured” into declaring they were over 18. David Bolt also found factors like “lack of eye contact” were used to make decisions, with a number of errors unearthed.
Borders minister Dame Angela Eagle announced that intrusive scientific measures like MRI scans would be scrapped, with software to be tested instead. She said that artificial intelligence software has a “known degree of accuracy” if someone’s age is disputed.
The report found that from a sample of 100 cases, 76% who disputed being over-18 were found to be children. It also found a child who had worked in Libya from the age of 13 did not get referred for safeguarding support in spite of signs of exploitation.
Dame Angela wrote: “We have concluded that the most cost-effective option to pursue is likely to be facial age estimation, whereby AI technology – trained on millions of images where an individual’s age is verifiable – is able to produce an age estimate with a known degree of accuracy for an individual whose age is unknown or disputed.
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“In a situation where those involved in the age assessment process are unsure whether an individual is aged over or under 18, or do not accept the age an individual is claiming to be, facial age estimation offers a potentially rapid and simple means to test their judgments against the estimates produced by the technology.”
The report by Mr Bolt found that in some cases age assessments relied on superficial and culturally biased indicators, such as “broad shoulders” or “lack of eye contact” to determine how old someone was.
It follows serious concerns about the processes that had been raised for years. Enver Solomon, who heads the Refugee Council, said: “We are very worried that too many children have been denied the care and protection they need and exposed to significant safeguarding risks.
“We welcome the decision to abandon intrusive scientific methods like X-rays and MRI, which we have long called for, but we are not convinced that replacing them with AI tools is the answer.
“These technologies continue to raise serious questions about accuracy, ethics and fairness.”
In a written statement to MPs, Dame Angela said AI age assessment technologyu has “improved rapidly” and has been adopted by online retailers for verification tests.
She wrote: “Early assessments suggest that Facial Age Estimation could produce workable results much quicker than other potential methods of scientific or technological age assessment, such as bone X-rays or MRI scans, but at a fraction of the cost, and with no requirement for a physical medical procedure or accompanying medical supervision.”
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