Live facial recognition cameras have been deployed at UK ports to catch illegal migrants.
The specialist technology was trialled in Holyhead, Wales at the end of last year.
Immigration Enforcement, Border Force and local police said 15 cameras in total were used to identify people in breach of deportation orders.
Holyhead is a key port for immigrants from the Republic of Ireland and is the second busiest passenger ferry port in the UK – with more than 400,000 lorries and 400,000 cars passing through every year.
The trial, which took place at the end of last year, saw a watchlist of almost 5,000 wanted immigration offenders crosschecked.
Two alerts were set off when checked against the faces of passersby and out of a total 7,512 scanned faces, one person was arrested.
No incorrect alerts were set off, The Sun reports.
Last year saw the second highest annual number of illegal migrant arrivals on record.
Holyhead (pictured) is a key port for immigrants from the Republic of Irelandand is the second busiest passenger ferry port in the UK – with more than 400,000 lorries and 400,000 cars passing through every year
Migrants are seen being taken from a Border Force patrol boat on December 20 2025 – one of the last days a crossing was made last year
A total of 41,472 migrants entered the UK meaning the total for 2025 was 13 per cent higher than the figure for 2024, when 36,816 migrants made the journey, and 41 per cent higher than 2023’s total of 29,437.
The overall aim of the live facial recognition trial, which marked the first time the cameras were used by Immigration Enforcement staff, was to ‘ensure border integrity and protect the public from harm’ by ‘identifying and locating those within an agreed watchlist’.
The technology is now expected to be rolled out to other key ports in the UK.
It has previously been deployed at airports by border force to allow a ‘contactless’ entry into Britain.
At Manchester Airport passengers arriving in October were processed with the cameras which replaced passport checks.
Director General of Border Force Phil Douglas said the trial at Manchester had showed waiting times could be ‘considerably reduced’.
Plans are now also underway for the technology to be used by all police forces in the country.
The Home Office says the scanners have already been used to catch rapists, domestic abusers and other violent offenders.
Policing minister Sarah Jones described the technology as the ‘biggest breakthrough for catching criminals since DNA matching’
Policing minister Sarah Jones described the technology as the ‘biggest breakthrough for catching criminals since DNA matching’.
She added: ‘We will expand its use so that forces can put more criminals behind bars and tackle crime in their communities.’
It comes as a new national face-matching system is currently on trial so police forces can search millions of custody images in seconds.
The Home Office said: ‘This is a major step in stopping offenders evading justice.’
More and more people seeking asylum are packing themselves into boats, with an average of 62 arrivals per boat last year, up from 53 in 2024 and 49 in 2022.
Keir Starmer is also less than 1,000 migrants away from an unwanted record – having the most people cross the Channel in his premiership after less than two years.
As of yesterday, 64,714 people have made the journey after 545 days in office, at a rate of 118 a day. Boris Johnson saw 65,676 people cross during his time in Government after 1,140 days – an average of just 57 a day.
The Conservatives and Reform have both blasted Labour’s failure to tackle the growing small boats crisis and to deport those who arrive illegally, blaming Starmer’s reluctance to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Keir Starmer is now less than 1,000 migrants short of an unenviable record: the most people crossing by small boat of any Prime Minister since the crisis began in 2018
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Small boat crossings are the inevitable product of a system that guarantees entry and obstructs removal.
‘As long as the ECHR sits at the centre of our asylum system, illegal immigration is effectively hardwired in. Until Labour confront that reality, nothing they announce will ever change the outcome.
‘There is no deterrent and anyone who crosses the Channel know they can invoke human rights law and remain indefinitely. Labour lack the backbone to confront that truth.’
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to ‘smash the gangs’ had been ‘a complete disaster’ and the ‘one in, one out’ deal with France is a ‘farce’.
‘The numbers coming over are huge,’ he said. ‘Many of the young men that have arrived last year will do us great harm.’
