Nigel Farage has unveiled a £10billion ‘mass deportation’ plan that would see five migrant flights leave the UK every day if Reform take power.
The party leader said the five year plan, called Operation Restoring Justice, would also bar small boat migrants from claiming asylum in the UK.
They would be held in detention centres on ‘surplus’ RAF bases while awaiting deportation, with the Government being required to build detention centres capable of holding 24,000 people within 18 months.
As many as five charter flights would leave the country every day, deporting hundreds of thousands of migrants. They would also be offered the opportunity to ‘deport themselves’ using an app and given £2,500 to leave the country.
Mr Farage would also seek to introduce criminal offences for people who attempt to return to the UK after being deported or destroy their identity documents.
He pledged to explore deals with ‘third countries’ such as Rwanda and Albania to house asylum seekers after they are deported, while British overseas territories such as Ascension Island would be used as a ‘fallback’ option.
These sweeping changes, which are likely to encounter legal, political and practical challenges, would be introduced under emergency legislation known as the Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill.
‘The aim of this legislation is mass deportations,’ Mr Farage said in an interview with the Times. ‘We have a massive crisis in Britain.’
Nigel Farage has unveiled a £10billion ‘mass deportation’ plan that would see five migrant flights fly out of UK every day if Reform take power.
People thought to be migrants scramble to board a small boat near Wimereux in France
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to the Border Force compound in Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel on August 15
‘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.’
He added: ‘Who is our priority? Is it the safety and security of this country and its people? Or are we worrying about everybody else and foreign courts? That’s what it comes down to. Whose side are you on?’
Setting out the cost for the plans, Mr Farage said they would cost £10billion over five years, with £2.5billion spent on repurposing disused RAF and other military bases into detention centres.
People housed in these centres would be barred from leaving or claiming bail and would have access to canteens and medical facilities
Prime Minister Keir Starmer had pledged to stop housing asylum seekers on disused military sites during last year’s general election amid concerns about the pressures placed on local services by large-scale sites, but is yet to do so.
As part of Reform’s plans, a further £2billion would go towards detention costs, with £1.5billion also set aside for staff and £1.5billion for chartering flights.
Mr Farage has also set out £2billion for ‘diplomatic incentives’ that would help strike returns deals with countries where migrants are most commonly fleeing from, such as Afghanistan and Eritrea.
He claimed that Britain’s place on the international stage and use of incentives like international aid to secure agreements would help secure such deals.
Migrants sprint through the surf at Gravelines beach in northern France to board a traffickers’ dinghy to Britain earlier this month
According to Amnesty international, the Eritrean Government regards claiming asylum abroad as evidence of treason, with anyone forced to return to the country facing torture and sometimes death.
Meanwhile, corporal punishment, amounting to torture and other ill-treatment, has been common under the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan and is employed for crimes including theft, adultery and alcohol consumption.
Mr Farage said migrants would ‘ideally’ sent back to their country of origin, but ‘if we have some problematic ones’, then British overseas territories such as Ascension Island in the south Atlantic would be used as a ‘backstop’.
Such places would be used as a holding destination before they are moved on, Mr Farage suggested, adding that they would have no choice in the matter.
Mr Farage’s plan would also take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights, replacing it with a British Bill of Rights, which would not include any reference to human rights.
