Reform UK launches deportation plan to restore total control over British borders

• Nigel Farage launches ‘Operation Restoring Justice'; Reform UK's five-year plan to identify, detain and deport illegal migrants in the UK.

• The plan will be enacted by passing the Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill, chartering five deportation flights per day and setting up a new enforcement unit called UK Deportation Command.

• It is estimated that, on a net basis, the programme will save the taxpayer tens of billions of pounds over the next decade, and hundreds of billions over the next several decades.

‘Operation Restoring Justice' has today [26 August] been launched by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf at Oxford Airport.

The plan sets out a five-year emergency programme to identify, detain and deport illegal migrants in the UK, and to deter any future build-up by demonstrating that unlawful presence will be met with swift removal and a lifetime ban on re-entry. This will be done by combining a legal reset with national scale enforcement.

The gross implementation will cost around £10 billion over five years. However, considering the status quo currently costs UK taxpayers over £7 billion per year, excluding many hidden costs such as the burden on the NHS, the net saving during the first five years of a Reform government will be over £7 billion, expanding to £42 billion over the first decade.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage MP said:

"The British public want this issue dealt with – end of story. The actions of those brave and concerned parents in Epping are the clearest example yet that ordinary, decent people have simply had enough.

"There is only one way to stop people coming into Britain illegally, and that is to detain them and deport them. The time for bold action has arrived."

Alongside leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), repealing the Human Rights Act and replacing it with a British Bill of Rights, upon winning a general election a Reform government will pass the Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill. This Bill will:

• Create a legal duty for the Home Secretary to remove illegal migrants;

• Disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture and the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention which could be used by activist judges to frustrate deportations;

• Create detention power without Hardial Singh constraints, meaning illegal migrants can be detained until they are deported;

• Ensure those that come to the UK illegally are ineligible for asylum by stripping the Home Office, the immigration tribunals and the higher courts of jurisdiction to even consider claims;

• Make re-entry after deportation and deliberately destroying your identity documents a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison;

• Enforce a lifetime re-entry ban, banning anyone who has been deported from re-entering the UK for life.

Operationally, a Reform government will:

• Create an enforcement unit called UK Deportation Command, including an Illegal Migrant Identification Centre. This cutting-edge data centre will help to identify and detain all illegal migrants in the UK, automatically sharing data between the Home Office, NHS, HMRC, DVLA, banks and the police.

• Scale up deportation charter flights to five per day. The legal reset created by the Bill will mean activist lawyers will no longer be able to prevent flights from departing.

• Build secure Immigration Removal Centres (SIRCs) to detain up to 24,000 illegal migrants within 18 months with prefabricated two-person rooms, canteen catering and on-site medical suites.

• Introduce an initial six-month Assisted Voluntary Return Window which will precede large-scale raids, offering illegal migrants a financial incentive to self-deport.

• Prioritise securing returns agreements with all relevant countries to take back their illegal migrants. This will be done with a carrot and stick approach, with aid offered as an incentive and cessation of visa approvals and sanctions on the table where necessary.

• Negotiate deals with third countries to house illegal arrivals as a backstop with the British Overseas Territories offering a strategic fallback. For example, Ascension Island's isolated airfield can handle A330 aircraft, enabling rapid transfer of Channel arrivals.

Notes to Editors

• SIRCs - The Home Office will convert surplus RAF bases into Secure Immigration Removal Centres. Modular camp technology adds another 5,000 beds on MoD training land. Within 18 months total capacity stands at 20,000 with scope for surge to 24,000.