Algorithms In Exile: Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights, And The Governance Of Technology In Refugee And Forced Displacement Contexts
- IJLLR Journal
- May 30
- 1 min read
Kumar Gautam, Research Scholar, Department of Laws, Panjab University, Chandigarh
ABSTRACT
The deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in the management of refugee and forced displacement crises marks one of the most consequential intersections of emerging technology and international human rights law in the twenty-first century. With over 110 million forcibly displaced persons worldwide, humanitarian organisations, governments, and technology corporations are increasingly turning to AI systems, including biometric identification, predictive analytics, automated decision-making, and surveillance technologies, to manage, monitor, and assist displaced populations. This paper argues that while AI carries genuine transformative potential for improving humanitarian outcomes, its deployment in refugee contexts is attended by a matrix of legal, ethical, and political risks that the existing international and domestic legal order is inadequately equipped to address. Drawing upon international human rights law, refugee law, data protection frameworks, comparative constitutional jurisprudence, and critical algorithmic studies, this paper undertakes a systematic legal and normative analysis of AI's impact on refugees and displaced persons. It demonstrates that without principled governance frameworks grounded in human dignity, non-discrimination, and accountability, AI risks replicating and amplifying the very marginalisation it purports to remedy. The paper concludes with a normative framework for rights-compliant AI governance in humanitarian settings, structured around the principles of legality, proportionality, dignity, accountability, and meaningful human oversight.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Refugees; Forced Displacement; Biometrics; Automated Decision-Making; Data Privacy; Non-Refoulement; Algorithmic Bias; Humanitarian Technology; Human Rights.
