Former advocate for Brexit, Nigel Farage, detailed proposals on Saturday for „mass deportations” of migrants who have crossed the English Channel in small vessels, contingent upon his party, Reform UK, establishing a future government in the UK, as reported by Reuters.
In a Saturday interview with The Times, Farage indicated he would take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights and would establish agreements with crucial origin nations like Afghanistan and Eritrea to facilitate the repatriation of undocumented migrants.
„We can maintain friendly relations with individuals and other nations, or we can adopt a firm stance with foreign countries… Trump clearly demonstrated that,” stated Farage.
When posed with a question regarding concerns that asylum seekers may face death or torture if returned to nations with dire human rights records, Farage replied that he was more focused on the potential risks asylum seekers pose to the British populace.
„I cannot be held accountable for tyrannical regimes worldwide. However, I am responsible for the safety of women and girls in our communities,” he remarked.
Recently, there have been minor protests in the UK outside hotels accommodating asylum seekers, partly driven by public safety apprehensions following allegations of sexual assaults by some migrants.
Last year, 37,000 individuals—primarily from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Vietnam, and Eritrea—arrived in the UK from France, crossing the Channel in small boats. This figure represented a 25% increase compared to 2023 and comprised 9% of net immigration.
Asylum seekers to be detained at air bases before deportation
Approximately two-thirds of those arriving by small boats and applying for asylum are granted it, while merely 3% have faced deportation, according to data from the University of Oxford.
Farage informed The Times that he would revoke the right to file for asylum or oppose deportation for those arriving by small boats by repealing existing human rights laws and withdrawing the UK from international refugee accords, citing a „national emergency.”
„The objective of this legislation is mass deportation,” Farage stated, adding that a „significant crisis” driven by asylum seekers is inciting public frustration.
The Times mentions that Farage aims to establish detention centers for 24,000 migrants on military air bases, with an estimated budget of 2.5 billion pounds ($3.4 billion), and to conduct five deportation flights daily, with the target number of deportees reaching into the hundreds of thousands.
If this initiative does not succeed, asylum seekers may be relocated to Ascension Island, a British territory in the South Atlantic, as a symbolic measure, Farage concluded.
