Dubbed the “deception detection” system will analyse the micro-expressions of those seeking to enter EU territory to see if they are truthful about their background and intentions.

The European Commission thinks that it will provide a “unique approach to ‘deception detection’ analyses the micro-expressions of travelers to figure out if the interviewee is lying”.

The project, which has received €4.5 million funding from the EU, has been slammed by experts.

Bruno Verschuere, a senior lecturer in forensic psychology at the University of Amsterdam, told the Dutch newspaper De Volskrant that he believed the system would deliver unfair outcomes.

“Non-verbal signals, such as micro-expressions, really do not say anything about whether someone is lying or not. This is the embodiment of everything that can go wrong with lie detection. There is no scientific foundation for the methods that are going to be used now.

“Once these systems are put into use, they will not go away. The public will only hear the success stories and not the stories about those who have been wrongly stopped.”

Verschuere said there was no evidence for the assumption that liars are stressed and that this translates to into fidgeting or subtle facial movements.

Bennett Kleinberg, an assistant professor in data science at University College London, said: “This can lead to the implementation of pseudoscientific border control.”

Similar technology is being developed in the US, where lie detection is widely used in law enforcement, despite it being easily fooled.