Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Saturday set out plans for “mass deportations” of migrants who reach Britain in small boats, saying a government led by his party would withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), rewrite domestic human-rights laws and seek removal agreements with major countries of origin.
In an interview with The Times, Farage said he would seek accords with Afghanistan, Eritrea and others to repatriate people he described as illegal migrants. He praised the hard-line stance of former U.S. President Donald Trump. “We can be nice to people, we can be nice to other countries, or we can be very tough to other countries … Trump has proved this point quite comprehensively,” he said.
Asked about returns to states accused of torture or other abuses, Farage said his priority was public safety in Britain. “I can’t be responsible for despotic regimes all over the world. But I can be responsible for the safety of women and girls on our streets,” he told the newspaper.
Britain has seen a series of small protests in recent weeks outside hotels housing asylum seekers, amid concerns about safety after some migrants were charged with sexual assault. Broader polling shows immigration and asylum top voters’ concerns, narrowly ahead of the economy, and Reform UK — which won five seats at last year’s general election — has led recent voting-intention surveys.
A record 37,000 people — mostly from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Vietnam and Eritrea — crossed the English Channel in small boats last year, up about a quarter from 2023 and accounting for roughly 9% of net migration. Around two-thirds of small-boat arrivals who claim asylum are granted protection, while about 3% have been deported, according to University of Oxford analysis.
Farage said a Reform UK government would end the right to claim asylum or legally challenge removal for people arriving by small boat by replacing existing rights legislation and opting Britain out of refugee treaties on grounds of national emergency. “The aim of this legislation is mass deportations,” he said, arguing a “massive crisis” was fuelling public anger.
The Times reported Farage wants holding facilities for up to 24,000 people on military air bases at an estimated cost of 2.5 billion pounds ($3.4 billion), and five deportation flights a day, with removals eventually reaching the hundreds of thousands. If those measures proved insufficient, asylum seekers could be sent to Ascension Island, a remote South Atlantic territory, to send a “symbolic message,” the paper said.