Farage says Reform UK would carry out ‘mass deportation’ of small boat arrivals
Nigel Farage is to publish plans for mass deportations of asylum seekers who come to the UK on small boats which his Reform UK party would seek to put in place if it entered government.
Arresting asylum seekers on arrival, automatic detention and forced deportation to countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea are among the proposals reported to be announced on Tuesday.
They also include deals with third countries, which could include reviving the Conservatives’ Rwanda link-up, and sending asylum seekers to British overseas territories such as Ascension Island as a “fallback” option.
Mr Farage said the plans could see hundreds of thousands of people deported and five charter flights taking off from the UK every day.
It comes amid rising tensions over asylum hotels and as the Government said it planned to appeal against a court ruling blocking the use of a hotel in Epping, Essex.
Human Rights
The first step of Reform UK’s plans would be to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and to scrap the Human Rights Act, followed by legislation to bar those who come to the UK on small boats from claiming asylum.
“The aim of this legislation is mass deportations,” Clacton MP Mr Farage told The Times.
“We have a massive crisis in Britain. It is not only posing a national security threat but it’s leading to public anger that frankly is not very far away from disorder.
“There is only one way to stop people coming into Britain and that is to detain them and deport them.”
Sir Keir Starmer’s Government is struggling with rising tensions over hotels housing asylum seekers and a record number of people crossing the English Chanel in small boats so far this year.
Those arriving on small boats would face immediate arrest under Reform UK’s plans, and the party would also seek to build detention centres to house 24,000 people, Mr Farage told The Times.
He wants to sign deals with countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea to send people back.
Third countries
Reviving the Conservative Party’s Rwanda plan or a deal with Albania could also be on the table under plans to send people to third countries.
After a temporary injunction was granted on Tuesday to Epping Forest District Council to remove asylum seekers from the Bell Hotel in Epping, councils across the country controlled by Labour, the Conservatives and Reform UK are considering following suit with their own legal challenges.
On Friday, the Home Office said it would appeal against the High Court’s refusal to allow it to intervene in the case of the Bell Hotel, and to further appeal against the temporary injunction.
Somani Hotels, the owner of the Bell Hotel, also plans to appeal against the court order blocking the use of its site as accommodation for asylum seekers.
A wave of protests outside hotels used to temporarily house asylum seekers is expected in the coming days.
The Home Office has a legal obligation to provide accommodation to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute and can move people to alternatives such as hotels and large sites, like former military bases.
Protests
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said ministers are working to close hotels housing asylum seekers “as swiftly as possible” as part of an “orderly” programme that avoids creating problems for other areas.
South Norfolk Council said on Friday that it had been informed that the Home Office intends to stop housing asylum seekers at the Park Hotel in the town of Diss.
The hotel’s operator had warned it would close if the Home Office followed through with plans to begin placing men at the site instead of families.
Protests took place outside the hotel last month.
Council leader Daniel Elmer said: “The Home Office thought it could just impose this change and that we would accept it.
“But there is a right way of doing things and a wrong way and the decision by the Home Office was just plain wrong.
“The council had to make a stand to support the women and children and our local community and that’s exactly what we did.
“Although I welcome the decision, in reality it does mean that the women and children who we fought so hard to protect will now be moved elsewhere, and that is a shame.”
‘Ongoing effort’
A Home Office spokesperson said: “As part of our ongoing effort to reduce the number of hotels in use and close them all by the end of this parliament, we are not planning to use this site beyond the end of the current contract.”
The Government has also pledged to crack down on smuggling gangs to deter Channel crossings.
Nearly 28,000 people have arrived in the UK so far in 2025 after crossing the English Channel, a record for this point in the year since data collection began in 2018.
The Conservatives said Reform UK was recycling Tory ideas.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “This big reveal is just recycling many ideas the Conservatives have already announced.
“We even tabled detailed amendments and a whole Deportation Bill to ensure the removal of illegal immigrants and foreign criminals – and forced votes on it in Parliament weeks ago.
“Nigel Farage previously claimed mass deportations were impossible, and now he says it’s his policy. Who knows what he’ll say next.”
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No small boat arrivals before your Brexit, Nigel.
And descendants of the Saxon boat people Hengist and Horsa?
Frump did it so maybe Garage could as well. I am going to put a go fund me page for a house for these 2 chaps in Eritrea. Who knows, they may go and live there. Please.
In my view, the government has 12 to18 months to get to grips with this; otherwise, a Reform government is inevitable. Ironically, things are improving, though you wouldn’t believe it. There are fewer people in hotels, Cooper seems a competent Home Office SoS, the France deal is a good step forward, and the Jenrick/Farage/Chris Phillips social media clips largely display ignorance and spread lies. These are not being called out yet, but they will be closer to election time. But I feel a ‘big’ policy change is needed, not just the 1-in-1-out approach. Greece and Turkey led the way by agreeing… Read more »
Do they pay you overtime for working Saturdays at Labour Central Office?
Cooper is in no way competent. Just knee jerk reaction after knee jerk reaction.
Never forget she was the the minister who introduced the hostile environment for disabled people when Work and Pensions Secretary.
Go on, give an example if incompetency…
Why should France take anyone back for our convenience? The only “big” solution is to rejoin the Dublin regulation which we know was working because there were no small boat crossings in 2016.
Well perhaps it missed you, and if you read, that’s my point exactly; why should they, how to persuade them. Greece-Turkey is the only measure that has proven to work (with some caveats). My personal view is if you stopped boats coming to the UK by such as measure, EU countries could then be empowered to implement a similar arrangement with north Africa. You have to get France to agree some medium pain and accept risk to do that. And if you think Dublin III is the solution, or that we can easily join the EU in the next 15-20… Read more »
Dublin is the UKs equivalent of what Greece and Turkey are doing. It’s a returns agreement that acts as a deterrent.
And we don’t need to rejoin the EU to participate in Dublin because Iceland, Switzerland and Norway also participate.
They’re not EU members, by the way. They’re just unafraid to partner with their neighbours in areas of mutual interest.
Bonkers, and totally clueless.
Read my lips.
We didn’t need hotels in 2016.
They have less. If reform get a grip in the Senedd I expect No10 to get hammered.
Hate and fear mongering has remained unchallenged by No10. The racist tropes are getting bolder every week. Labour are awol.
Nige will condemn people to torture and death then, he is happy for that. That is what him and his kind will OK, death and torture. And I fully expect him to round up British citizens and just because they are not white, end up deported but say it was a “mistake”. Never underestimate the level of hate this nasty POS will sink to.
This policy if implemented will destroy the UKs international reputation. We will be seen as a country that has no ethics / support for some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.
The knock-on effects will affect trade; we can all see that with Trump, plus as he now is pressurising companies such as Apple to cut non-USA production, less prosperous regions will lose out
With the added complication that unless you have a deal, you dont fly jets into countries that dont want you. farage is saying what his racist followers want to hear.
That’s right Farage – stoke the fire, stoke the hatred, stoke the racism. The people of Britain need to wake up, this man is not your friend, his views are alien to the way most of us feel, think and act. He will not solve your problems and just make them worse. A true far right populist and look where that got Europe in the 1930s and 40s.
Farage says all sorts. He’s standing on a sideline shouting. If he gets into power he’ll find there’s a small matter of the Law standing in this braggard’s way. As he was with Brexit, he started that other countries would coperate with his agenda. And of course after Brexit, they didn’t. Simply saying that other countries would take his rejects doesn’t mean they will.
He’s full of p…s and wind.
If Nigel wants mass deportation of illegal immigrants he’ll need two things. Mandatory identity cards for everyone, and “papers please” checkpoints on every street, checking everyone.
Id cards would actually be a very good idea for a million other reasons too. They’re pretty standard in European countries. No need for checkpoints on every street.
How would you find the illegal immigrants if you weren’t checking everyone’s status on a regular basis?
That someone such as Farage is even being considered as a potential election winner (in the UK and Wales) shows how incompetent our mainstream parties are.
He will never escape that photo. Him with that caption. Perfect. If his complaint is that more should be done about crime, he should start by handing himself in for his own crime of inciting racial hatred.
That’s it that’s there Manifesto !