West Africa Adopts AI-Driven Border Surveillance

Governments across West Africa are deploying biometric identification, facial-recognition cameras and AI-driven systems at airports and land borders, the author reports in a recent study. The EU has funded many projects under migration externalisation, shaping surveillance adoption and enabling data-sharing across countries. The shift raises concerns about privacy, algorithmic discrimination and threats to the Ecowas free-movement regime, prompting calls for regional AI governance and data-protection rules.
Key Points
- 1Deploys biometric and AI systems at airports and land borders across West Africa.
- 2Raises privacy, data-sharing, and algorithmic-bias concerns, threatening migrants’ rights and free movement commitments.
- 3Requires ECOWAS-led regional AI governance, data-protection rules, transparency, and independent oversight to safeguard rights.
Scoring Rationale
Highlights regional AI surveillance trends and policy risks, but relies on a single study and lacks broad empirical validation.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
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