Legal bid launched to expose how AI system streams visa applicants

RIGHTS campaigners have brought a legal challenge to Home Office on algorithm used to stream visa applicants to the UK.

They argue that the AI system used for granting UK visas is biased and it affects policy decisions on who is allowed into the country.

The case brought by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants is supported by Foxglove, an advocacy group, and they want the Home Office to explain how the algorithm "streams" visa applicants.

They fear that the “streaming tool” has created a “fast lane” that would lead to “speedy boarding for white people”.

However, the Home Office insists that the algorithm helps only in allocating applications. It does not rule on them and the final decision ultimately remains with caseworkers.

“We have always used processes that enable UK Visas and Immigration to allocate cases in an efficient way,” a spokesperson for the Home Office was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

“The streaming tool is only used to allocate applications, not to decide them. It uses data to indicate whether an application might require more or less scrutiny and it complies fully with the relevant legislation under the Equalities Act 2010.”

Rejecting the Home Office’s defence of the AI system, Cori Crider, a director at Foxglove, said that the claim was pretty threadbare.

“We’re told the system uses nationality to ‘stream’ applicants green, yellow and red – and it’s easy to guess who ends up in the green queue and who gets pushed to the back of the bus in red. If your algorithm singles out people for a digital pat-down and offers speedy boarding to white people, well, that’s unlawful.”

In its letter to home secretary Priti Patel, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants argue that even the visa streaming process will affect the final decision.

It said: “An individual visa applicant allocated by the streaming tool to the ‘Red’ category because of their nationality might still be granted a visa.

"However, their prospects of a successful application are much lower than the prospect of an otherwise equivalent individual with a different nationality allocated to the ‘Green’ category.

"To similar effect, the same ‘Red’ application is likely to take much longer than the ‘Green’ one, again involving less favourable treatment of the applicant because of their nationality.”