Reform UK has unveiled a hardline immigration policy that would immediately halt all new visas for nationals of any country formally demanding financial reparations from Britain over its historical role in the transatlantic slave trade.
Speaking to the Telegraph, the party’s home affairs spokesman, Zia Yusuf, described the demands as “insulting” to British taxpayers, arguing that the UK has already made “huge sacrifices” by leading the global effort to abolish slavery in the early 19th century.
Under the plan, nationals from the 17 nations would be barred from work, study, family, and visitor visas. Reform has already pledged to scrap foreign aid to any country making such demands, while the visa ban would go further.
The countries that have demanded reparations, according to Reform UK, are:
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Dominica
- Grenada
- Haiti
- Jamaica
- St. Kitts and Nevis
- St. Lucia
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Ghana
- Kenya
- Nigeria
- Belize
- Guyana
- Suriname
These nations, many of them Commonwealth members, have collectively called for billions, and in some estimates trillions, of pounds in compensation.
A 2023 University of the West Indies report, backed by a former International Court of Justice judge, estimated that Britain owes more than £18 trillion to 14 Caribbean countries alone for its role in slavery, roughly seven times the size of the UK economy.
Over the past two decades, the UK has issued approximately 3.8 million visas to nationals of these 17 countries and provided them with £6.6 billion in foreign aid, according to Reform’s analysis.
Nigeria received the highest number, at 2.7 million visas, followed by Ghana and Kenya. In the Caribbean, Jamaica accounted for 162,290 visas and Trinidad and Tobago for 24,305.
“A growing number of countries are demanding reparations from Britain. These countries ignore the fact that Britain made huge sacrifices to be the first major power to outlaw slavery and enforce this prohibition,” Yusuf said.
He highlighted Britain’s abolition of the slave trade in 1807, full emancipation in 1833, and the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron, which seized over 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 people at significant cost in lives and treasure.
“A Reform government will not allow Britain to be slapped around and ridiculed on the world stage like the Tories and Labour,” a party spokesman added. “We will not allow British taxpayers to be insulted and their money wasted.”
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