Reform vows to deport ‘hundreds of thousands’ of small boat migrants and asylum seekers
Reform UK has vowed to deport “hundreds of thousands” of small boat migrants who have successfully sought asylum if the party wins the next general election.
The party plans to review all successful asylum claims over the past five years; Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesman, stated that anyone found to have entered illegally or overstayed their visa and subsequently sought asylum “will have their status revoked and deported”.
Times Nigel Farage’s party estimates 400,000 people will be “under review” and the “majority” will be deported.
In his statement regarding X, Mr. Yusuf said: “Reform will reverse the occupation of England.
“Anyone who enters the country illegally or on a visa and stays too long to seek asylum – which is almost all of them – will have their status revoked and deported.
“This is an addition to those currently in Britain illegally.”
The announcement comes after 602 people crossed the English Channel on small boats on Saturday, making it the second busiest day for crossings this year, taking the total number of arrivals to more than 6,000 in 2026.
The reform promised to detect and deport all illegal immigrants in the UK, as well as leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which people often use to claim asylum.
The party said it would aim to deport 188,000 illegal immigrants a year by operating five repatriation flights a day.
In response to the announcement, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the Conservative government would deport illegal immigrants “within a week of their arrival”.
He said: “The Conservatives have proposed a detailed border plan to withdraw from the ECHR and completely ban illegal immigrants from seeking asylum.
“The Conservatives’ ‘refoulement power’ will deport 150,000 immigrants every year without their right to be here.
“It’s slowing the pace of our reform ideas, but it doesn’t have the details to make it work in practice.”
Will Forster, the Liberal Democrats’ immigration and asylum spokesman, accused Reform of spreading “hostile, headline-grabbing” plans that will “do absolutely nothing to tackle our broken asylum system”.
He added: “The backlog of cases is already huge thanks to the mess the Tories have left us in. Reviewing five-year asylum grants is an impractical nonsense that will slow down the process even further.”
The Liberal Democrats said they were calling on the Government to set up Nightingale processing centres, clearing the asylum backlog within six months, so that those who have the right to remain can “get on with their lives and support themselves, while those who do not can be quickly returned”.
