Home Office to Redesign Visa Streaming Algorithm After Complaints of Racism

The U.K. government has agreed to review and revise its visa algorithm, which has been called racist and discriminatory because it allegedly accepts visa applications based on nationality.

The visa algorithm, which has been labeled racist and campaigned against by The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), determines visa applications based on the country where the individual comes from. 

The algorithm has been used in screening visa applications in the U.K. since 2015.

JCWI criticised the algorithm, comparing it to a traffic light structure that labels the visa applications with red, yellow or green risk ratings, Tech Crunch reported.

Each person is assigned a colour in this system, and U.K. visa applications are determined by the risk rating given by the algorithm.

Law firm Foxglove accuses the Home Office of having a list of countries that are automatically labeled red, or high risk in the U.K.

JCWI and Foxglove submitted their campaign to stop racial bias in visa applications to the High Court.

Foxglove said the visa algorithm allegedly used a highly favoured avenue from certain countries in what the campaign group called “speedy boarding for white people,” according to The Guardian. However, the Home Office does not agree with this statement. 

According to the campaigners, the technology is automatically racist because it gives visa applicants from some countries a higher risk score, immediately basing the visa application on the person’s nationality.

The visa algorithm favours the “green-lighted” countries over “red-lighted” countries, making it easier for the visa applications of some people to be accepted while others are not.

Reportedly, if a visa applicant comes from a “red-lighted” country, they are held under a closer microscope than those coming from the “green-lighted” countries.

The campaigners argue that visa applications from “high-risk” countries were placed under closer examination, took longer to be decided on and had more potential to be denied. The campaigners said the visa application process as it operates now is breaching the Equality Act and is designed to be innately racist. 

The filter that visa applications are screened through was challenged by JCWI.

The JCWI argued that the visa algorithm was designed using systematic racism by targeting individuals based on the country they came from. The organisation called for rebuilding the racist visa algorithms and rule out biases in visa applications. 

“Entrenched bias and racism in the visa system breaks hearts and tears families apart, like the four siblings from Nigeria unable to travel to the U.K. for their sister’s wedding, or the countless skilled professionals refused unable to contribute to conferences and events in the U.K. just because they don’t come from a rich white country — including scores of African academics and artists denied entry for no good reason,” JCWI said on its website.

The Home Office has agreed to review the visa algorithms, revise them, and make them more secure.

According to the Home Office, the use of the visa algorithms will be deserted on 7 August. A new design of the visa algorithms is anticipated to be operating by this autumn.

Home secretary Priti Patel made the decision to abandon the visa algorithms and acknowledged the latent bias of generalising nations in a letter.

According to the BBC, the Home Office has refused to comment on the situation while the dispute is underway. 

In the meantime, while the new visa application system is in process, applications will be examined based on the specific individual and where they have travelled previously, and will not weigh their nationality as a part of the process. 

What are your thoughts on the U.K.’s visa application process being based on nationality? Let us know in the comments.

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