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 outlined plans for a UK Deportation Command capable of detaining 24,000 people and deporting up to 288,000 annually, operating five flights a day. Currently, the UK has around 2,500 detention spaces.
The party also proposed scrapping indefinite leave to remain, replacing it with a renewable five-year work visa and a dedicated spouse visa. Additional measures 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. A so-called “Polanski law” would criminalise assisting illegal entry, with a penalty of up to two years in prison.
Yusuf acknowledged comparisons to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) standoffs but argued that such violence was unlikely in the UK due to the absence of widespread gun ownership. “We would not expect UK Deportation Command to need to carry weapons,” he said, while vowing not to flinch in the face of “progressive outrage”.
Rights organisations reacted with anger. Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, said the plan was a “sadistic vision of UK families and communities being ripped apart”. Natasha Tsangarides of Freedom from Torture described Yusuf’s speech as “a grotesque display of ethno-nationalist politics”. Reform UK aims to deport more than 600,000 people in its first parliament and will impose visa freezes on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria if they refuse to accept returns.
