Digital Hostile Environment
The Home Office has been accused of trialling AI-powered tools in near-total secrecy, with officials invoking national security to prevent disclosures and reject freedom of information requests. According to the report, titled ‘Automated Discrimination: Unpacking the Digital Hostile Environment’, AI has taken over a number of tasks in the immigration and asylum-seeking procedure. This include determining the ages of new arrivals, detecting sham marriages and summarising migrants’ interviews. More troubling is the use of live facial recognition to conduct border surveillance and the utilisation of AI in a secretive government tool called Identify and Prioritise Immigration Cases (IPIC).
The report, which received cross-party support from MPs of the Labour Party, the SNP and the Green Party, has condemned what it sees as “reducing people to data points”. The current policy being pursued is reminiscent of the ‘hostile environment’ strategy envisioned by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary, which aimed to make the everyday lives of undocumented migrants challenging and insecure. The strategy resulted in the wrongful targeting and detainment of individuals, as well as an increase in racial profiling.
Risks of Automation
The debate surrounding the use of AI in immigration and border control has been raging in both the UK and abroad. For civil rights groups, it raises major ethical concerns, particularly on privacy, discrimination and accountability. A spokesperson for the Home Office has stated that AI “does not replace or automate the role of human decisionmakers”. However, Open Rights Group fears the utilization of AI-powered tools could reinforce pre-existing biases and that these tools are not sophisticated enough to deal with the human complexity of migration. Ultimately, the use of algorithms may improve efficiency; however, in such fundamental decisions as asylum cases, it could expose vulnerable people to discrimination and deepen existing inequalities.
