Reform UK proposes paid return deals for migrant deportations
Reform UK unveils a plan to detain and deport migrants arriving on small boats, funding return agreements and overhauling immigration laws over five years.
Reform UK has announced a five-year plan to detain and deport all migrants arriving in the UK on small boats, offering financial incentives to origin countries and building remote removal centres.
Key measures
- £2bn fund to secure returns agreements
- Detention at former RAF bases and new centres for up to 24,000 people
- Charter flights scaled up to five per day
- Voluntary returns scheme offering £2,500 per person
Legal overhaul
The party’s Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill would require the home secretary to remove illegal migrants and ban re-entry for life. It also aims to override the 1951 Refugee Convention and repeal the Human Rights Act, withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights and replacing it with a British Bill of Rights.
Political response
Labour has labelled the plan unworkable, while the Conservatives accused Reform UK of rehashing their own proposals. The Liberal Democrats dismissed it as unrealistic without clear agreements on detention and deportation locations.
Channel crossings and asylum numbers
This year, 28,288 people have crossed the Channel in small boats—46% more than by the same date in 2023—bringing the total to a record 111,000 asylum applications in the year to June. Since 2020, there have been 188,969 detected irregular arrivals, mainly from Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Iran and Sudan.
Reform UK vows to fund mass deportations, detaining migrants on arrival and striking return deals to deter small boat crossings within days.
This topic was reported by BBC News.
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