Farage to unveil plan for mass expulsion of migrants

Nigel Farage is to publish plans for mass deportations of asylum seekers who come to the UK on small boats.

- HELEN CORBETT ANAHITA HOSSEIN-POUR

His Reform UK party would seek to put these plans in place if it entered government. Arresting asylum seekers on arrival, automatic detention and forced deportation to countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea are among the proposals reported to be announced on Tuesday.

They also include deals with third countries, which could include reviving the Conservatives’ Rwanda linkup, and sending asylum seekers to British Overseas Territories such as Ascension Island as a “fallback” option.

Mr Farage said the plans could see hundreds of thousands of people deported and five charter flights taking off from the UK every day.

It comes amid rising tensions over asylum hotels and as the government said it planned to appeal against a court ruling blocking the use of a hotel in Epping, Essex.

The first step of Reform UK’s plans would be to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and to scrap the Human Rights Act, followed by legislation to bar those who come to the UK on small boats from claiming asylum.

“The aim of this legislation is mass deportations,” Clacton-on-Sea MP Mr Farage told The Times.

“We have a massive crisis in Britain. It is not only posing a national security threat but it’s leading to public anger that frankly is not very far away from disorder.

“There is only one way to stop people coming into Britain and that is to detain them and deport them.”