Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is set to announce a pledge to ban anyone from being granted asylum for five years if the party gains power. The plan, to be unveiled on Monday, would suspend the asylum system for a full parliamentary term and declare void any applications currently in progress.
Complete overhaul of asylum system
Under the proposals, all asylum tribunals, legal refugee routes and resettlement schemes would be scrapped. A Reform government would not hear the around 90,000 outstanding asylum and humanitarian protection appeals and would instead deport the claimants.
The party would immediately close resettlement schemes that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood recently said would reopen. Around a quarter of those admitted to the UK under these schemes are expected to be Palestinians and women and girls from Afghanistan.
No mandate for resettlement schemes
Reform says there is “no mandate” for such schemes and that anyone who has arrived under them would be deported. Any refugees granted asylum in the last five years would have their cases reviewed by the Home Office under the plans.
Mr Farage told The Telegraph: “The country is currently facing a national security emergency and the first duty of government is to protect its citizens.
“We cannot accept more asylum seekers while we still have no idea how many people are in the country illegally and the threat they pose.
“A Reform government will always put British people first and protect our borders.”
Tariffs and sanctions to enforce returns
The party will also pledge to use tariffs to force countries to take back migrants. This follows plans unveiled earlier this year to impose “visa freezes” on those wanting to visit the UK legally from countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria if they do not accept deportees.
These would halt any new visas for nationals of those countries – as well as Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia – which the party would target due to having significant levels of visas issued to the UK.
When it comes to other countries that would not be greatly affected by such a measure but have trade with the UK, the party is now saying it would go further with sanctions such as tariffs and airline bans to apply more pressure.
Labour and Conservative responses
Labour called the plans “a clear sign of desperation and weakness”. Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said: “Nigel Farage is casting around for more and more extreme policies as he tries to deal with scandals, police investigations and a growing challenge from Restore — this is a carbon copy of their policy.
“Running away from basic decency by entirely abandoning those escaping war and persecution might look to Reform like a way of winning a bidding war with other parties on the right, but the vast majority of British people will reject it as an assault on our common values.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the proposals “largely copy” the Conservatives. “Banning asylum claims by illegal immigrants, abolishing the immigration tribunal and ending Labour’s resettlement routes are all existing Conservative policy.
“Our detailed BORDERS plan also sees us coming out of the ECHR and ensures all illegal immigrants are removed within a week of arrival – and closes the modern slavery claim and judicial review loopholes, both of which Reform seems to have missed.”
