Technology on the margins: AI and global migration management from a human rights perspective Petra Molnar* University of Toronto, Canada Experiments with new technologies in migration management are increasing. From Big Data predictions about population movements in the Mediterranean, to Canada’s use of automated decision-making in immigration and refugee applications, to artificial- intelligence lie detectors deployed at European borders, States are keen to explore the use of new technologies, yet often fail to take into account profound human rights ramifi- cations and real impacts on human lives. These technologies are largely unregulated, developed and deployed in opaque spaces with little oversight and accountability. This paper examines how technologies used in the management of migration impinge on human rights with little international regulation, arguing that this lack of regulation is deliberate, as States single out the migrant population as a viable testing ground for new technologies. Making migrants more trackable and intelligible justifies the use of more technology and data collection under the guise of national security, or even under tropes of humanitarianism and development. The way that technology operates is a useful lens that highlights State practices, democracy, notions of power, and accountability. Technology is not inherently democratic and human rights impacts are particularly impor- tant to consider in humanitarian and forced migration contexts. An international human rights law framework is particularly useful for codifying and recognising potential harms, because technology and its development is inherently global and transnational. More over- sight and issue-specific accountability mechanisms are needed to safeguard fundamental rights of migrants such as freedom from discrimination, privacy rights and procedural justice safeguards such as the right to a fair decision-maker and the rights of appeal. Keywords: migration, migration management, new technologies, artificial intelligence, global governance, international human rights law 1 INTRODUCTION: A LABORATORY OF HIGH-RISK EXPERIMENTS States are increasingly turning to novel techniques to manage migration. 1 An unprece- dented number of people are on the move due to conflict, instability, environmental * I would like to thank Professor Eyal Benvenisti for his critical insights during my time at the University of Cambridge and Samer Muscati for his ongoing support. 1. Migration management is a theoretically contested term, yet is widely used in the literature on global governance of migration by various international organisations. For a broad overview of the concept, see Martin Geiger and Antoine Pécoud, ‘The Politics of International Migration Management ’ in Martin Geiger and Antoine Pécoud (eds), The Politics of International Migration Management (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2012) 1. Migration management has also been widely critiqued by various scholars and linked to broader theories such as Cambridge International Law Journal, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 305–330 © 2019 The Author Journal compilation © 2019 Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd The Lypiatts, 15 Lansdown Road, Cheltenham, Glos GL50 2JA, UK and The William Pratt House, 9 Dewey Court, Northampton MA 01060-3815, USA Downloaded from Elgar Online at 12/10/2019 09:46:41PM via University of Toronto Libraries