'Deportation command' could remove 600,000 illegal immigrants, UK's Reform party claims

With polls showing strong support, leader Nigel Farage says his policies would tackle 'genuine threat to public order'

Nigel Farage poses in front of a mock departures board. AP Photo / Joanna Chan

A deportation command to remove 600,000 illegal immigrants from the UK has been unveiled as the principal policy of the upstart political party leading many British opinion polls.

If Reform is elected to power, the leadership has said it will make a root-and-branch effort to tackle illegal immigration.

Launching the party’s plans to tackle what the UK government calls irregular immigration aboard small boats in the English Channel, Reform leader Nigel Farage and, Zia Yusuf – a senior figure in the party – said the legal obstacles to deportations would be removed by pulling out of international treaties and repealing UK human rights laws.

Mr Farage told an event at an airport in Oxford that the figure for the number of deportations could be achieved over the lifetime of the next parliament, about five years.

Polls show Reform has support of about 30 per cent of electorate, making if the most popular party, and ahead of Labour on 21 per cent and the Conservatives on 17 per cent

Mr Farage made his address after a weekend of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers, which began in July when one resident at The Bell Hotel in Epping in Essex was charged with the attempted assault of a 14-year-old girl.

Mr Farage, a former commodities trader who rose to prominence as a figure in the British Eurosceptic movement, spoke of a “genuine threat to public order” as a result of “total despair and rising anger” unless the issue of asylum seekers was addressed.

“The only way we will stop the boats is by detaining and deporting absolutely anyone that comes via that route,” said Mr Farage.

“And if we do that, the boats will stop coming within days, because there will be no incentive to pay a trafficker to get into this country. If you come to the UK illegally, you will be detained and deported and never, ever allowed to stay, period. That is our big message from today.”

He claimed that Reform’s plans will save “tens and possibly even hundreds of billions of pounds” in the decades ahead.

Mr Farage said Reform would revoke asylum seeker approvals given to people who have overstayed their visas and singled out people from Pakistan who entered the UK by that route.

“They’ve come with the excuse that they’re coming to visit relatives, then they overstay and that racket, that absolute racket that’s been going on for years, has to end,” he said.

“The same applies to students who come here and then deliberately and wilfully overstay.”

He brushed off questions about failed asylum seekers being tortured or murdered if they were sent back after entering the UK illegally saying: “We cannot be responsible for all the sins that take place around the world. It’s just literally impossible.”

Migrants wade into the sea to board a dinghy in Gravelines, France, to cross the English Channel. Getty Images

Mr Yusuf gave more detail about how Reform would go about the returning failed asylum seekers, which he said would be overseen by a deportation command. This agency would draw data from the police, Home Office, National Health Service, the tax authorities and banks, he said.

“This will allow deportation command to relentlessly track down and detain all those who entered our country illegally,” Mr Yusuf said, adding that up to five deportation flights would leave the UK every day with failed asylum seekers on board.

The party would leave the European Court of Human Rights, abandon the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture and the Council of Europe’s anti-trafficking convention, said Mr Yusuf.

Domestically, Reform would repeal the Human Rights Act, and pass an illegal migration mass deportation act, while the Home Office, immigration tribunals and “higher courts of jurisdiction” would not be allowed to hear asylum claims.

At Westminster, the UK government condemned his proposals, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer's official spokesman stating that “you don’t achieve international agreements by ripping up international agreements”.

Alluding to Mr Farage’s announcement, he referred to policies as a “gimmicks” and “sound bites”.

But Mr Yusuf said that Reform would “strike agreements around the world to tackle small boats crisis”.

“When Nigel’s prime minister there will not be a lawyer, nor a judge in the country that will be able to prevent a deportation flight from leaving,” he said.

Reform's plans contrast with a more incremental approach favoured by the government, which has secured a “one-in, one-out” agreement with France. Under that, each migrant who arrives by small boat is sent back, with an asylum seeker with what is deemed a genuine claim coming the other way.

A group of 100-plus would-be asylum seekers in detention, including some arrested over the weekend, could be among the first to be sent back to France under the scheme.

But a recent opinion poll shows that 71 per cent of those surveyed believe Mr Starmer is mishandling the issue of asylum seeker hotels.

For the opposition Conservatives, shadow home secretary Chris Philp accused Mr Farage of “simply reheating and recycling plans that the Conservatives have already announced”.

“Earlier this year, we introduced and tabled votes on our deportation bill in Parliament, detailing how we would disapply the Human Rights Act from all immigration matters, and deport every illegal immigrant on arrival.

“Months later, Reform have not done the important work necessary to get a grip on the immigration crisis and instead have produced a copy and paste of our proposals.”