Reform UK’s proposal to create a US-style deportation agency has been condemned as “sadistic” by rights groups, after the party’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf described migration as an “invasion”. Speaking at a press conference in Dover, Yusuf said the planned UK Deportation Command would have capacity to detain 24,000 people at any one time and deport up to 288,000 annually, operating five flights a day.
Yusuf, introduced as “the shadow home secretary”, said mass deportations would not trigger violent standoffs seen in the US because “policing is done by consent” in the UK and officers would not be armed. He added: “I don’t envy anyone who has to do that job of law enforcement in America, where so many people, particularly criminals, are carrying firearms.”
The party also set out plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain, replacing it with a renewable five-year work visa and dedicated spouse visa. Other proposals include expanded surveillance powers, a ban on converting churches into mosques, and automatic home searches for anyone referred to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme by three corroborating authorities.
Reform said it would impose “visa freezes” on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria if those countries refused to accept returns of migrants with no legal right to remain. A policy document states a government led by Nigel Farage would seek to deport more than 600,000 people in its first parliament, including those with indefinite leave to remain if they fail to qualify for time-limited visas.
Migrants’ rights organisations reacted with anger. Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, said: “We have watched in horror as ICE attacked migrant communities in the US – yet this is what Reform wants to base their immigration policies on? This is a sadistic vision of UK families being ripped apart.” Natasha Tsangarides, from Freedom from Torture, called the speech a “grotesque display of ethno-nationalist rhetoric”.
