Nigel Farage today unveils his blueprint for the “mass deportation” of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers who come to the UK on small boats.
In an interview with The Times, the Reform UK leader says that Britain is facing a “massive crisis” and that the only way forward is to detain and deport all migrants who arrive illegally.
His plan would take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights and derogate from the UN Convention Against Torture and other international agreements.
Reform UK, Farage’s party, would introduce emergency legislation known as the Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill, which would bar those who come to the UK on small boats from claiming asylum. While awaiting deportation, they would be held in detention centres on “surplus” RAF bases.
Reform would seek to sign deals with Afghanistan, Eritrea and other countries that are large sources of small-boat migrants, despite claims of human rights abuses by their governments.
The party would also look to “third countries” such as Rwanda and Albania to house asylum seekers and seek to use British overseas territories such as Ascension Island as a “fallback” if people could not be sent elsewhere.
Pressed on what he would do if people were returned to Afghanistan and tortured or killed, Farage said: “I’m really sorry, but we can’t be responsible for everything that happens in the whole of the world. 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?”
