Immigration Enforcement officers will next week work with two police forces at Holyhead port to test technology designed to identify people on a deportation watchlist attempting to re-enter the UK
The Home Office has set out plans to trial live facial-recognition technology to identify people who have been deported from the UK but attempt to return.
Immigration Enforcement officers will deploy LFR at ports in the coming weeks to test its effectiveness at picking out people subject to deportation orders as they pass through “zones of recognition” monitored by cameras.
Holyhead will host a trial for three days next week, according to the Home Office. The north Wales port is the UK’s principal gateway for ferry passengers from the Republic of Ireland.
Last month, the Conservative Party floated plans for greater use of facial-recognition technology as part of a proposed drive to detain and deport 150,000 illegal immigrants every year.
The Home Office trial also comes as the Starmer government is encountering repeated crises related to immigration, deportation and the mistaken release of prisoners.
A policy document on Immigration Enforcement LFR plans that was published on Wednesday says the “proof of concept” will be conducted using staff and equipment supplied and managed by South Wales Police and Greater Manchester Police. Both forces have experience with the technology.
The policy document says that while the LFR system being trialed will be responsible for identifying possible matches between file images of people on the “watchlist” and people passing through individual zones of recognition, officers will decide on the next steps.
A trained Immigration Enforcement officer will be responsible for determining whether an alert flagged by the LFR system is accurate. They will then decide whether to dispatch “engagement officers” to see whether further action is required.
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The guidance states that LFR “works to assist IE personnel to make identifications rather than acting as an autonomous machine-based process devoid of user input”.
It adds that the trials are not only concerned with “developing and implementing precision tactics that protect the public as effectively as possible” but also with ensuring that new detection methods are monitored for impact.
The guidance says Immigration Enforcement “will implement a robust governance process to review the effectiveness and impact of LFR on an ongoing basis” and will “focus on delivering transparency”.
As part of that, the policy statement says data on trials – such as location, time, date, number of alerts, engagements, arrests, and any other information considered helpful and “suitable” for disclosure – will be shared on the Immigration Enforcement website. It stresses that personal data will not be published.
The guidance states that Immigration Enforcement “recognises the need” to ensure that the systems and processes it relies on are not inherently biased and “do not disadvantage individuals based on protected characteristics”.
It says that anonymised demographic data will be retained when LFR systems used in the trial generate a “false positive” – such as when an alert about an individual is raised but they turn out not to be on the watchlist.
In addition to providing the equipment, South Wales Police and Greater Manchester Police will manage the “technical and assurance aspect of the system” for the duration of the pilot. Both forces are described as having their own measures to guard against system bias.
According to the document, other checks on the system will involve officers and staff volunteers on a “blue watchlist” walking through the zone of recognition to measure the number of times alerts are generated.
PublicTechnology asked the Home Office whether it is expected that live facial recognition for people on the deportation watchlist will go live across UK ports when the trials – which are expected to continue for the remainer of this year – have completed. We also asked whether there is a target date for such arrangements, and for details of the number of ports taking part in the trials and the size of the deportation watchlist.
The department said it did not comment on “operational matters”.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Facial recognition protects the public and our borders by identifying and stopping those who break immigration law and exploit our immigration system.”
