Home Office plans facial recognition cameras at transport hubs and events to catch visa overstayers in immigration crackdown
Fixed cameras are planned for parts of London's West End and Soho, expanding beyond the mobile vans currently used.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has doubled the immigration enforcement budget and grown its workforce by 60%, with Home Office policy documents disclosing plans to deploy facial recognition cameras at transport hubs and public events to identify visa overstayers and people attempting to re-enter the country unlawfully. The documents confirm the programme is set to enter its formal delivery phase.
Cameras trialled in Croydon between October 2025 and March 2026 led to 173 arrests, among them suspects sought for rape, kidnap and sexual assault.
A newly created independent watchdog will have oversight of how police deploy the technology and the power to prohibit forces from using it if they fall short of required standards.
Privacy group Big Brother Watch warns the cameras are 'an indiscriminate tool' treating 'everyone who walks by as a suspect by default.'
