Rights groups and children's charities are warning that new AI-powered facial age-estimation technology, which the UK government plans to introduce to screen migrants, will lead to more child refugees being wrongly classified as adults. Critics say the underlying models show racial bias, disproportionately overestimating the ages of Black children from conflict zones, meaning unaccompanied minors could be housed with adults and exposed to detention, removal and the risk of violence linked to protests at asylum accommodation.

The Home Office has contracted German firm Cognitec to supply the technology, despite an investigation by Lighthouse Reports finding the system biased against sub-Saharan Africans, and government acknowledgement that even the best systems carry a 30-month margin of error. Charities including the Humans for Rights Network and Helen Bamber Foundation note that 755 children were incorrectly identified as adults in 2025 already, while campaigners such as Foxglove and Petra Molnar of Migration and Tech Monitor compare the approach to discredited pseudoscience and past failed AI border-screening trials in Europe. The Home Office says the AI will be used alongside checks by immigration officers to make assessments "more robust and consistent".