Reform UK has announced it would stop issuing visas to people from any country that continues to demand compensation from the UK for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. The party's home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, described the calls for reparations as 'insulting' and said the 'bank is closed and the door is locked'.
Yusuf told the Daily Telegraph that 3.8 million visas had been issued over the last two decades to people from countries calling for reparations. He argued that Britain made 'huge sacrifices' to be the first major power to outlaw slavery and enforce its prohibition, and that the UK is 'not an ATM for ethnic grievances of the past'.
The announcement comes after the United Nations voted last month to describe the transatlantic slave trade as the 'gravest crime against humanity' and called for reparations as a 'concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs'. The UK and EU members abstained from the vote, while the US voted against the non-binding resolution.
Reform UK has previously pledged to scrap international aid for countries demanding reparations. In 2023, a report by former International Court of Justice judge Patrick Robinson concluded the UK alone should pay $24 trillion (£18.8 trillion) as reparations for transatlantic slavery in 14 countries.
The Caribbean Community (Caricom) Reparations Commission has sought to clarify that its aim is not to 'break the British Treasury' but to identify mutual strategies for a restorative justice programme. Its chair, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, said during a lecture in London that the commission's pursuit is a 'moral and ethical argument for justice'.
