The UK Home Office has been accused of deploying artificial intelligence across its immigration infrastructure in “near-total secrecy,” reinforcing the controversial “hostile environment” policy through opaque technological systems. A new report, Automated Discrimination: Unpacking the Digital Hostile Environment, published by the Open Rights Group (ORG), details how AI is being integrated into everything from border surveillance to the high-stakes assessment of asylum claims.
According to the research, AI tools are now deeply embedded in the day-to-day operations of the immigration system. Applications for the technology include the detection of potential sham marriages, determining the age of asylum seekers, and conducting forensic digital sweeps of the phones belonging to new arrivals. Surveillance has also been bolstered by AI-powered drones and satellites, alongside the implementation of live facial recognition software at the border.
Furthermore, the Home Office is reportedly using an opaque algorithmic tool known as the Identify and Prioritise Immigration Cases (Ipic) system to manage caseloads. AI is also being utilized to summarize asylum interviews and synthesize the country policy information used as evidence to determine whether a claimant qualifies for protection.
The ORG report highlights significant concerns regarding the lack of transparency surrounding these tools. Successive governments have been accused of treating complex, life-altering human scenarios as technical problems to be “fixed” by algorithms. By failing to provide meaningful disclosure, the Home Office has consistently used national security justifications to block freedom of information requests and redact relevant documents.
The report warns that these technologies are far from neutral. Instead, it argues that they threaten to encode and scale existing societal biases, particularly when deployed within a framework driven by aggressive anti-immigration rhetoric. “Relying on AI to decide who gets to stay here and who gets thrown back into danger is a deeply alarming move,” the report states, emphasizing that the digitization of the “hostile environment”—first introduced by Theresa May in 2012—risks reducing vulnerable individuals to mere data points.
The findings have garnered cross-party support, with Labour’s Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the Scottish National party’s Pete Wishart, and the Green party’s Siân Berry all calling for greater scrutiny. Ribeiro-Addy criticized the department’s reluctance to account for the impact of these tools on the most vulnerable, noting: “The department has not explained how it will ensure there is accountability when they fail or justified why some of the most vulnerable people, with the least power, should bear the greatest risks.”
The Open Rights Group is now calling for a formal regulatory framework, including a mandatory public register of all government AI tools. They are specifically advocating for a ban on high-risk, undemocratic uses of the technology, such as the application of generative AI tools in asylum decision-making processes.
“Migration is a human phenomenon and experience, not a technical problem that can be fixed by artificial intelligence,” said Sara Alsherif, a programme manager at the ORG. “We urgently need transparency, accountability and strict regulation to restrict how AI is used and to prevent its wider rollout.”
In response to the report, a Home Office spokesperson maintained that AI is used only as a supplementary resource, rather than a replacement for human judgment. The spokesperson stated: “Use of artificial intelligence is just one of the tools at our disposal to protect our borders and does not replace or automate the role of human decision-makers. Asylum decisions are made by trained caseworkers, with AI tools used only to assist in navigating interview records and policy information.”
The government further asserted that it monitors the performance of these tools through quality-assurance processes and has committed to publishing updated evaluations on their deployment. However, as the debate over the ethics of digital governance intensifies, critics maintain that without robust oversight and legislative reform, the current use of AI in immigration remains a significant threat to civil liberties and human rights.
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