A controversial scheme which planned to take DNA from asylum seekers to establish their nationality has been suspended after mass criticism from scientists.

The UK Border Agency’s (UKBA) Human Provenance project, first reported on 20 September, involved collecting voluntary DNA samples from asylum seekers suspected of making fraudulent claims about their nationality.

Experts in genetics, medical law, and anthropology explained the raft of issues associated with such a scheme. 

Speaking to The Journal, Professor Veronica van Heyningen of the Medical Research Unit’s Human Genetics Unit, said: “I think it would be really difficult to be sure where someone came from on the basis of their mitochondrial DNA and y-chromosome. There are some indications from such information, but it’s a very broad brush and it could be wrong.”

Questions have also been raised about the legality of the programme and the concept of ethnicity at its heart.

Professor Graeme Laurie, Chair of Medical Jurisprudence in the School of Law at the University of Edinburgh, told The Journal: “There are already serious questions over a genetic basis of ethnicity and race and this project goes one dangerous step further in suggesting a genetic basis for nationality.

“While the scheme is described as voluntary, we have to wonder what the consequences of a refusal would bring. Fear that this might prejudice an application for asylum might lead people to agree to take part when, in fact, they have little real choice.”

Professor van Heyningen had similar concerns: “I don’t know how they’re going to do this voluntary business. It’s difficult to pass judgment on the process until that becomes clear.”

Researchers were uncertain how much the UKBA had consulted with experts on the proposed tests. Prof. van Heyningen said: “It’s more that the government is so often ignorant than set to be malign.” She said “they often don’t understand the usefulness or the power of particular tests".

Professor Tony Good, former Head of the School of Social and Political Studies at the University of Edinburgh, said that proving where asylum seekers come from “arises particularly in cases where people say they’re from Somalia.”

Members of persecuted minority clans frequently seek asylum in the UK, but, “a clan is a social category, not a biological category, and they [the UKBA] don’t seem to have realised that,” said Prof. Good.

On consulting the Human Genetics Commission, which advises the government on genetic policy, van Heyningen told The Journal: “I just feel that here is a body that was set up in order to supervise and make sure that these processes are properly scrutinised and so on. They should be consulted.”

The Human Genetics Commission commented: “There is not a strong relationship between an individual’s DNA markers and their race or ethnicity.”

A UKBA spokesperson said: "Nationality swapping is often used by fraudulent asylum seekers to help prevent their removal. That is why we are continuously looking at new and improved ways to ensure that we can ascertain the correct identity and nationality from every asylum seeker.”