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Report says AI is embedded across Home Office immigration tasks in near-total secrecy

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Source: The Guardian

Open Rights Group says in a report that AI is used across the Home Office for age determination of asylum seekers, sham marriage detection, checking the contents of new arrivals’ phones, border surveillance through live facial recognition, drones and satellites, and case prioritisation through the Ipic tool. The report has cross-party support from Labour’s Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the SNP’s Pete Wishart and the Greens’ Siân Berry. It says the technology is being trialled in near-total secrecy, with officials routinely invoking national security to stonewall freedom of information requests. A Home Office spokesperson said AI does not replace human decision-makers and that asylum decisions are made by trained caseworkers.

Why it matters

Open Rights Group says the Home Office has not published documents explaining how AI is used in asylum processing, what the problems are or how they are being addressed, while the Home Office says AI tools only assist caseworkers and do not make decisions on claims.

When
27 Oct 2026
ID
WTA-N-2026-0439
Who
Open Rights Group, Home Office; Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Pete Wishart, Siân Berry, Sara Alsherif

Summary by wheresthe.ai, from The Guardian. Checked against the source on 27 Oct 2026.

Read the original at The Guardian

Source copy: download the page as saved on 27 Oct 2026 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.

Cite this story

WTA-N-2026-0439: “Report says AI is embedded across Home Office immigration tasks in near-total secrecy.” wheresthe.ai, 27 Oct 2026. https://wheresthe.ai/d/gb-report-says-ai-is-embedded-across-home-office-immigration-2026-10/ (source: The Guardian).

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