Artificial Intelligence

UK to Introduce AI Age Checks for Asylum Seekers

Published JUL 23 2025

Story

Above: Migrants depart by boat from Petit-Fort-Philippe Beach, France, and head towards the U.K. on Jan. 17, 2025. Image credit: Joanna Chichelnitzky/Anadolu/Getty Images

The Facts

The U.K. government has announced plans to use AI facial age estimation technology to verify the ages of asylum seekers claiming to be children, with testing beginning this year and full integration planned for 2026.
The Telegraph
UK Parliament
guardian
Border Security and Asylum Minister Dame Angela Eagle claimed the AI technology will be trained on millions of verified facial images and is already used by retailers for online age verification of restricted products, offering a "rapid and simple means" compared to bone X-rays or MRI scans.
UK Parliament
This comes as a government inspection found that 56% of migrants claiming to be children in the past year were either assessed to be adults or later admitted they were over 18, while some genuine children were incorrectly classified as adults and placed in unsafe situations.
The Telegraph
BBC News
The report found in a sample of 100 cases that 22 out of 38 people initially assessed as adults by the Home Office were later determined to be children by local authorities, with 18 of these 22 having their "new age" accepted by the Home Office.
GOV.UK
Immigration inspector David Bolt criticized current assessment methods at Dover's Western Jet Foil facility, citing "arduous conditions," lack of interpreter use during initial screenings, and staff making decisions based on "generic physical characteristics" without cultural awareness.
GOV.UK
Official data claims that in the year ending March 2025, 109,343 people claimed asylum in the U.K., with 19% aged 17 or under. This comes after the U.K. government signed a strategic partnership with OpenAI earlier this week.
GOV.UK
GOV.UK

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The Spin

Techno-optimist narrative

AI technology represents a practical, cost-effective solution to the asylum assessment problem. Current methods are clearly failing, while new technology offers rapid, objective analysis without invasive medical procedures. This will help protect genuine child refugees, prevent system abuse that undermines public confidence in immigration controls, and boost public sector productivity.

UK Parliament

hansard.parliament.uk

Techno-skeptic narrative

Replacing an ineffective age assessment process with AI facial recognition isn't progress, it's swapping one problem for another. AI can be even more biased than humans, placing the future of thousands of vulnerable adults and children into uncertainty. Funding must instead be placed towards better training and support towards social workers, who have the emotional nuance to judge these delicate situations.