Reform Leader Nigel Farage has detailed his plans for the mass deportation of illegal immigrants should his party come into power.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday (26 August), Farage said that Reform would take a hardline approach on immigration and human rights, pledging to leave the European Convention on Human Rights unconditionally, repeal the 1998 Human Rights Act, and suspend the 1951 Refugee Convention for five years, alongside removing other legal obstacles to deportation.
The party would also impose a legal duty on the Home Secretary to remove illegal entrants and detain all illegal migrants immediately upon arrival, he said.
Farage said that the country’s immigration issue was now a national emergency and threatened public order.
“I think there is now, as a result of this, a genuine threat to public order, and that is the very last thing that we want. And I have been saying, of course, for a long time that it is a growing threat to our national security.
“And we have seen just recently some arrests of people who came by boat, and they are suspected of being involved in some form of terrorism,” he said.
A lifetime ban
Farage was joined on stage by Zia Yusuf, Head of Reform’s government efficiency department, who said that the party would also look at introducing lifetime bans on illegal immigrants.
“If you come to the UK illegally, you will receive a lifetime ban from ever coming back to our country, re-entering after deportation will become a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison,” he said.
“Deliberately destroying your identity documents, having come here illegally, will also become a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison.”
Yusuf said this will be paired with a UK deportation command – that is, a dedicated force to identify and deport illegal migrants at scale.
“We’ll create a cutting-edge data fusion centre that will automatically share data between the police, the Home Office, the NHS, the DVLA, HMRC, and banks. This will allow the deportation command to relentlessly track down and detain all those who entered our country illegally.
“We’ll build capacity to detain up to 24,000 illegal migrants at a time. That enables us to deport up to 288,000 illegal migrants a year. Detention will mean deportation, no chance of bail, no chance of absconding,” he said.
Leave a Reply