‘Digital hostile environment’: AI secretly being embedded across Home Office, report claims
Summary
An Open Rights Group report says the Home Office uses or tests AI in immigration work, including border surveillance, asylum case support and case prioritisation. The group argues that limited transparency and risks of bias could harm migrants’ rights, and calls for tighter regulation and disclosure. The Home Office says AI assists staff but does not make asylum decisions, and says it monitors the tools.Key Facts
- The report is titled “Automated Discrimination: Unpacking the Digital Hostile Environment.”
- The report says AI is used or tested to identify potential sham marriages, help assess asylum seekers’ ages and examine the contents of some phones.
- It says AI tools are used in border surveillance and to summarise asylum interviews and policy information.
- The report identifies the Identify and Prioritise Immigration Cases tool as a way to prioritise and assess cases.
- Open Rights Group gathered information from Home Office publications, freedom of information requests and parliamentary questions.
- Open Rights Group calls for stronger AI regulation, greater transparency, changes to freedom of information laws and a public register of government AI tools.
- The Home Office says trained caseworkers make asylum decisions and AI tools only assist them; it says it monitors the tools and plans to publish updated evaluations.
- Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, SNP MP Pete Wishart and Green Party peer Siân Berry support the report.
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