UMAFAE · Unaccompanied Minors Automatic Forensic Age Estimation

Unaccompanied Minors Automatic Forensic Age Estimation

UMAFAE’s goal is to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based algorithms that estimate the age of a migrant minor without any family reference by analysing radiographic images. Age is an innate characteristic of our own identity. However, in many countries, especially on the African continent, less than 10% of new births have been reported in a civil registry, in contrast to the official rate in European countries (90%). For this reason, applicants for international protection may arrive in the EU undocumented, or with unreliable identity documents. As a more serious consequence, these minors may end up deprived of the rights to which they are entitled. Therefore, UMAFAE is of extreme relevance due to its social and legal implications. It provides a key contribution to the migration challenge through more efficient systems that will support forensic experts in the estimation process, contributing to the “Inclusive, Innovative and Thoughtful Societies” challenge. Additionally, UMAFAE is completely aligned with the European Union’s 17 sustainable development goals, specifically, Goal 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), since it promotes inclusive societies and build effective and capable institutions at all levels. The specific objectives are as follows: 1) to improve the accuracy of current age estimation methods in minors by means of AI-based techniques; 2) to develop fully automated methods; 3) to shift from current observational methods to objective, fast, accurate, robust and reproducible ones; 4) to develop models that are explainable and interpretable for the forensic community, especially for the courts of justice, responsible for the decision-making process; 5) to validate the models on real cases of migrant minors without family references; and 6) to contribute to the EU’s action and agenda to protect the rights of minors. Regarding point 5, carrying out the validation on real cases of undocumented migrant minors, whose files are stored in the most important institutes of forensic medicine and forensic sciences in Spain, is a necessary step to demonstrate the validity of the data, the robustness of the algorithms and the reliability of the process itself. The collaboration of the indicated institutions allows us to close a cycle, and to find out whether forensic professionals will really be able to apply these models in their forensic work, according to sound statistical standards and the most important principles of child protection.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз