What happened

The Home Office's Identify and Prioritise Immigration Cases (IPIC) system is designed to help immigration officials more quickly analyse various types of personal data, including biometric information, ethnicity, health markers and criminal history, in order to prioritise cases for enforcement action. The UK is estimated to have around 41,000 individuals facing deportation.

Critics, including migrant rights and privacy organisations, argue that the tool risks creating a "rubberstamping" effect where decisions are made based on algorithmic recommendations with little human oversight and could have a potentially significant impact on adults and children. 

The opaque system was exposed by Privacy International, after it had obtained redacted manuals and assessments after a year-long freedom of information request.

Why it happened

The introduction of the IPIC tool is part of the UK government's response to increasing immigration case loads. Officials claim that the AI system will improve efficiency and help manage the growing number of cases needing attention. 

But rights groups have raised alarms about the ethical implications of using AI in such sensitive areas as immigration enforcement and have expressed concerns about racial and other forms of bias and the erosion of privacy rights due to extensive data-sharing practices associated with the tool.