Refugee protection in the artificial intelligence era

Government and private sector interest in artificial intelligence (AI) for border security and for use in asylum and immigration systems is growing. Academics and civil society are calling for greater scrutiny of legal, technological and policy developments in this area. However, compared to other high-risk environments for AI, this sector has received little policy attention. Whether governments can adopt AI and meet human rights obligations in asylum and immigration contexts is in doubt, particularly as states have specific responsibilities towards persons seeking refugee and humanitarian protection at national borders. The risks include potentially significant harm if AI systems lead (or contribute) to asylum seekers being incorrectly returned to their country of origin or an unsafe country where they may suffer persecution or serious human rights abuses – a practice known as ‘refoulement’. The use of AI in asylum contexts also raises questions of fairness and due process. Some reasons for optimism include recent efforts at responsible innovation. This involves governments focusing their efforts to deploy AI in parts of asylum and related decision-making processes deemed less likely to create tension with domestic and international legal principles. However, the restrictive and changeable nature of refugee and immigration policy in many countries today, as well as systemic challenges around fairness and access to rights, creates significant obstacles to human rights-compliant AI. It also creates significant obstacles to community and private sector participation in responsible and collaborative AI development. Emerging AI principles and safeguards (e.g. human control, transparency, algorithmic impact assessments) that build on good governance principles will be relevant to future development of systems and policies, but general principles need to be tailored to the asylum context, drawing on legal standards designed to guard against outcomes that produce serious human rights consequences. Particular attention must be paid at national and regional level to how AI tools can support human rights-based decision-making in complex and politicized systems without exacerbating existing structural challenges. How we treat asylum seekers and refugees interacting with AI will be a test case for emerging domestic and regional legislation and governance of AI. Global standard-setting exercises for AI – including UN-based technical standards and high-level multinational initiatives – will also influence the direction of travel.