The UK’s AI Border: Surveillance, Migration and Defence Companies

Name: The UK’s AI Border: Surveillance, Migration and Defence Companies
Start: 2025-08-28T18:00:00+01:00
End: 2025-08-28T20:30:00+01:00
Location: Lush Perfume Library Soho

By Migrants' Rights Network

Join us for a film screening and panel discussion on AI surveillance and other border technologies

Date and time

Location

Lush Perfume Library Soho

67-71 Beak Street London W1F 9SW United Kingdom

Speakers

Good to know

Highlights

2 hours, 30 minutes
Ages 16+
In person
Doors at 5:30 PM

Refund Policy

Refunds up to 7 days before event

About this event

A secretive, insidious AI border is being implemented along the South coast of England. An increasingly militarised network of AI surveillance technology is being rolled to scan for people seeking safety in the UK.

Over the last few years, the UK Government is contracting tech and defence companies to implement surveillance technologies, such as drones (Tekever and Schiebel), manned-aircraft (PAL Aerospace), and autonomous surveillance towers (ASTs) (Sirius Insight and Anduril) to monitor the Channel. While the Home Office claims this technology exists to assist in search and rescue operations, new groundbreaking research has found that the surveillance data and imagery is being used for a much more sinister purpose.

Together with researcher Samuel Storey, UK charity the Migrants’ Rights Network are trying to map the state of surveillance on the UK’s coast. However, in an increasingly opaque policy landscape where the State and their friends at tech companies attempt to shield themselves from scrutiny, trying to raise awareness of this is not without its challenges.

At this event, we will be screening Samuel Storey’s film: ‘Standing at the Gates of the Digital Hostile Environment: Britain's Anduril Maritime Sentry Towers’ detailing his initial investigation and mapping of autonomous surveillance towers. This will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A, where you will get the exclusive opportunity to hear an update on Sam’s research, as well as insight from experts investigating data-sharing agreements and the increasing use of surveillance technology on migrants.

AGENDA

17:30 Arrival
18:00 Welcome and film screening
19:00 Panel discussion
19:30 Q&A session & networking
20:30: Event concludes

Accessibility information:

The venue has a ramp to make the front door accessible for wheelchair users
Accessible toilets in the Welcome Hall
Lift access

If you have any other accessibility requirements, please email events@migrantsrights.org.uk

Soft drinks and snacks will be provided courtesy of Lush Giving

Organized by

Migrants' Rights Network

The Migrants’ Rights Network (MRN) is a UK charity that stands in solidarity with all migrants in their fights for rights and justice. We co-curate campaigns using anti-oppression practices to create transformational change, extending beyond the individual impact on migrants’ lives, to tackle oppression at its source.

MRN strives to create a situation in the UK in which:

People are free to move because migration is, and has always been, an integral part of the human experience.
Everyone, including all migrants, live in a society which is free from all forms of oppression and discrimination.
Nobody’s access to safety, rights and security should be determined by their immigration status.

MRN is a values-based organisation that places the intersectional experiences and perspectives of migrants at the core of its work. This is to ensure MRN remains accountable to those impacted by immigration and wider policies and practices.