Reform says it will deport up to 400,000 asylum seekers if it wins the next election, creating ‘pop up’ detention centres to hold thousands

Up to 400,000 asylum seekers will be ‘immediately detained’ and deported if Reform wins the next general election.

Revealing new details of Britain’s pledge to tighten border controls, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK said all illegal immigrants arriving in the five years before the next election would be jailed.

The party said these people would include those who arrived secretly on small boats or in the back of trucks, as well as those who sought asylum using fake documents.

That would top the nearly 600,000 deportations it said were made necessary by last year’s reform (the party said these would mostly be adults living in the UK illegally), meaning a million deportations in total.

It was stated that the reform government would also review all asylum applications going back five years, which would lead to more deportations.

According to the party’s new policy, anyone who requests asylum after their visa expires will be detained and deported.

The third category of asylum seekers (those whose home countries are now considered safe) will also have their humanitarian visas canceled and be eligible for deportation.

Since the current capacity of immigration removal centers is less than 3,000 beds, detaining such a large number of people would pose a major challenge.

But a Reform spokesman predicted that many of those targeted by the new policy would choose to leave the UK voluntarily.

He added that detention centers would be created ‘suddenly’ for those who remained in the party.

Reform Britain’s home affairs spokesman, Zia Yusuf, accused Labor and the previous Conservative government of allowing Britain to be ‘invaded’ by asylum seekers.

‘For years Conservative and Labor governments have presided over the invasion of Britain,’ he said.

Reform’s Zia Yusuf said the Reform government would go back five years and review all asylum applications, which would lead to the deportation of up to 400,000 people

‘They implemented an effective open border policy.

‘Instead of upholding the law, they rewarded those who broke the law by entering the UK illegally.

‘Reform will reverse this.’

He added: ‘Today we are announcing that the Reform government will review the previous five years of asylum grants and that anyone who enters the country illegally or overstays on another visa will have their status stripped and deported.

‘We will do whatever it takes to restore justice in England.’

The party said the review would revoke ‘permission to remain’ for anyone who falls into any of the three categories, as well as their dependents’ permission to remain.

They will be ‘given a period of time to leave the country’ and will then be deported by the UK Deportation Command, which Reform has planned.

A Reform spokesman said: ‘Assuming a UK Reform Government is formed after the General Election in 2029, we would expect more than 400,000 people to be covered by this policy.

‘This is based on grants from the last two years, those currently in the asylum system and those expected to enter the system in the next three years.

‘Around 55 per cent of asylum seekers arrived secretly or by small boat in the last five years, according to Home Office data, so the vast majority of those covered will have their humanitarian status revoked.’

Small boat migrants were disembarked at Dover by the UK Border Force on Saturday, with more than 600 arriving in the UK.

The spokesman added: ‘Those within the asylum system will be detained immediately and their deportation will be prioritized.’

The party has committed to removing the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights and the 1951 Refugee Convention.

It will also pass new legislation called the Illegal Immigration (Mass Deportation) Act, which allows deportations.

Previous legislation allowing asylum seekers to receive less favorable treatment if they arrived illegally was passed by the former Conservative government in 2023.

However, it was later repealed by the Labor Party.

602 small boat migrants arrived in the UK on Saturday, taking this year’s total past the 6,000 mark.

Nine boatloads of migrants were picked up from the mid-Channel by Border Force ships on Saturday and disembarked at the Port of Dover.

It also means that 70,701 migrants have crossed the Channel into Britain since Labor came to power.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘The Conservatives have already proposed a detailed border plan to withdraw from the ECHR and completely ban illegal immigrants from seeking asylum; instead we will deport them within a week of their arrival.

‘The Conservative’s Removal Force will deport 150,000 immigrants every year without their right to be here.

‘Reform is slowing the pace of our ideas, but lacks the details to make it work in practice.’