- Migrants who have overstayed visas or entered the UK without permission could potentially be placed on facial recognition watchlists.
- Proposed deployments include transport hubs and selected public events expected to attract large crowds.
- Campaigners have raised concerns about racial bias, mass surveillance and a lack of independent oversight.
The UK government is preparing to expand the use of facial recognition technology to track undocumented migrants at transport hubs and public events, raising concerns about surveillance, racial bias and the rights of people who have not committed criminal offences.
New Home Office policy documents outline plans to use live facial recognition (LFR) cameras for general immigration enforcement, including civil immigration breaches such as overstaying a visa or entering the country without permission.
The technology could be used to identify people suspected of trying to re-enter the UK unlawfully, locate individuals subject to removal action and target wider immigration-related criminality.
The plans form part of what the government has described as the biggest immigration enforcement crackdown in British history. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has doubled the immigration enforcement budget and increased its workforce by 60 per cent, with the aim of enabling tens of thousands more raids, arrests and deportations.
The documents include new guidance for immigration enforcement officials published on October 8 and a data protection impact assessment released later that month.
Who could be targeted by facial recognition cameras?
The documents suggest that people who have overstayed their visas, entered the UK without permission or failed to comply with immigration conditions could potentially be added to facial recognition watchlists.
This is significant because some of these breaches are civil immigration matters rather than criminal offences.
The Home Office says the cameras would help locate undocumented people so their cases can be resolved. It argues that the technology could reduce disruption to the wider public compared with repeated enforcement visits to people's homes or workplaces.
The proposed system would also target people seeking to re-enter the UK unlawfully, individuals subject to removal action and those wanted in connection with immigration-related criminal offences.
The guidance states that people under the age of 18 will not be included on watchlists.
However, the proposed expansion has raised questions about the use of surveillance against people who have breached immigration rules but have not been accused of a crime.
Where could the cameras be deployed?
The potential locations have expanded beyond the limited trials previously conducted at Holyhead port in north Wales.
Between November 2025 and February 2026, immigration enforcement carried out three trials of live facial recognition technology at the port. These focused on identifying people travelling from Ireland through the Common Travel Area who were subject to deportation orders or warrants for immigration-related criminal offences.
The new guidance indicates that future deployments could take place proactively at transport hubs and specific public events expected to attract increased footfall.
The documents also refer to locations with heightened community sensitivity as potential higher-risk deployment areas. However, they do not identify specific events or locations, and the Home Office declined to clarify what those descriptions meant when questioned.
The LFR project has now moved into what the documents describe as its formal delivery phase. A Home Office spokesperson confirmed that the department was considering further trials and was actively exploring the technology's potential benefits, implications and future use.
Why are campaigners concerned about the expansion?
Civil liberties and migrant rights organisations have criticised the plans, warning that the use of facial recognition in public spaces could increase surveillance of migrant communities.
Griff Ferris, a spokesperson for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said immigration enforcement already used tactics that “persecute and terrorise migrant communities”. He described giving the department greater powers to use what he called a “racist mass surveillance tool in public places” as frightening.
Sarah Lasoye, of the Open Rights Group, said immigration enforcement appeared to be expanding the use of controversial facial recognition technology without adequate scrutiny, transparency or public consent.
“Immigration enforcement and police forces are exploiting an absence of national legislation regulating uses of AI technologies, including facial recognition, in the public sector,” she said.
Concerns have also been raised about the technology's potential to misidentify people of colour. Earlier this year, it emerged that the Home Office had continued using an AI facial-age estimation tool despite knowing it had incorrectly identified some child migrants as adults.
The Home Office documents say the use of live facial recognition is subject to external oversight, including by the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner and the Information Commissioner's Office.
However, William Webster, the biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner, told Liberty Investigates that he had not been consulted on the policy and that the use of live facial recognition for immigration purposes fell outside his remit.
He warned that the expansion of the technology into different public services raised questions about the limits of existing regulatory oversight. He said he hoped these would be addressed in the forthcoming legislative framework for facial recognition.
The Home Office has not confirmed a nationwide rollout or provided a timetable for wider deployment. For now, it is considering further trials, but the policy documents indicate that facial recognition is becoming a more prominent part of its immigration enforcement strategy.
