Reform UK said it’s prepared to deport 600,000 asylum seekers from Britain to prevent “civil disorder.”
Party leader Nigel Farage said the plan includes withdrawing Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), repealing the Human Rights Act, and scrapping international treaties that block forced deportations, Reuters reported.
The ECHR, a cornerstone of U.K. human rights law, has repeatedly been used to halt deportations of migrants deemed to be in the country illegally, the BBC reported.
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“We are not far away from major civil disorder,” Farage told a press conference. “It is an invasion, as these young men illegally break into our country.”
Dubbed Operation Restoring Justice, the plan is the “only way” to stop small boats crossing the English Channel, Farage said, adding that migrants intercepted at sea should be detained and deported.
“If we do that, the boats will stop coming in days because there will be no incentive,” he claimed.
Labour Party Chairwoman Ellie Reeves criticized the announcement, saying it lacked detail.
“Today, we got none of those things, nor a single answer to the practical, financial, or ethical questions about how their plan would work,” she said.
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The announcement followed weeks of small protests over mass migration and crimes committed by some asylum seekers.
Britain received a record 108,100 asylum applications in 2024, many from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and Bangladesh.
Polling shows immigration has overtaken the economy as voters’ top concern. Reform UK, despite holding only four seats in Parliament, is leading in surveys of voting intentions, Reuters reported.
Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook dismissed the proposals as “a series of gimmicks” that would not work. Reform’s opponents and several charities said the plan would amount to Britain abandoning its human rights commitments.
