Women and children would be detained and deported under Nigel Farage’s plans to stop small boat crossings in the Channel.
Addressing a news conference in Oxford, Mr Farage admitted that the question of “how we deal with children is much more complicated”, but insisted: “Women and children, everybody on arrival will be detained.”
Politics latest: Farage asks: Whose side are you on?
The Reform UK leader laid out his plans to deport hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants if he wins the next election in 2029 – saying the small boats crisis in the English Channel was fuelling “rising anger” among the public and creating a “genuine threat to public order”.
‘The boats will stop coming within days’
“The only way we will stop the boats is by detaining and deporting absolutely anyone that comes via that route,” Mr Farage said.
“And if we do that, the boats will stop coming within days, because there will be no incentive to pay a trafficker to get into this country.
Is it time for a different approach to stop the people smugglers?
Fast-track asylum appeals process to be introduced – as average time for decisions is more than one year
Reform UK’s new immigration plans would have been seen as extreme just a few years ago
Follow our channel and never miss an update
“If you come to the UK illegally, you will be detained and deported and never, ever allowed to stay, period. That is our big message from today.”
The news conference followed a weekend in which hundreds of people made the dangerous crossing to Britain via the Channel.
Labour says it is tackling the issue by signing its “one in, one out” pilot scheme with France, which came into force earlier this month.
It allows the UK to send some people who have crossed the Channel back to France in exchange for asylum seekers with ties to Britain – but Reform and the Conservatives have said it will make little difference given that more than 28,000 people had made the crossing to the UK in 2025 alone.
Under Reform’s “operation restoring justice programme” – which has been denounced by Opposition parties as “inflammatory” and “unworkable” – anyone who arrives in the UK illegally via small boat would be detained and deported and refused permission to stay.
Mr Farage said he believed the party would be able to deport around 600,000 asylum seekers in the first parliament of a potential Reform UK government, at an estimated cost of £10bn over the five-year period.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Illegal migrants would be forced to return to their home countries, something the Reform leader said could be achieved by the UK by choosing not to follow certain human rights laws.
The party is planning to repeal the 1998 Human Rights Act and leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), arguing that such laws have allowed foreign offenders to challenge their own deportation orders through the courts and remain in the UK.
It would also disapply the 1951 Refugee Contention and the UN Convention Against Torture, and the Council of Europe’s anti-trafficking convention, which prevent people from being deported to countries where they face the prospect of torture or ill treatment.
Instead, under its own Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill, those who come to the UK on small boats will be barred from claiming asylum, and held in detention centres on spare RAF bases rather than taxpayer-funded hotels – which have been subject to a number of protests from local communities in recent months.
‘The alternative is to do nothing’
Reform is also seeking to sign returns deals with countries including Afghanistan, despite its poor human rights record and the threat that those sent back would be subject to torture and ill treatment.
Mr Farage faced a number of questions about the human rights abuses perpetuated by the likes of Afghanistan and Eritrea, another country he is seeking to send illegal migrants to if they arrive in Britain.
Asked whether he was “comfortable” with the prospect of people being tortured if they were sent back after entering the UK illegally, Mr Farage said: “What really bothers me is what is happening on the streets of our country. What really bothers me is what is happening to British citizens.”
Read more:
Far right ’emboldened’ says MP
More than 80% of shoplifting offences result in no charge
He added: “The alternative, of course, is to do nothing. That’s the very clear alternative, is that we just do nothing. We just allow this problem to magnify and grow.
“We head to a point, where there, and I genuinely, I don’t want this to happen, I want our proposals to be accepted so we can prevent civil disorder from happening, but that is the direction this country is headed in. We cannot be responsible for all the sins that take place around the world. It’s just literally impossible.”
The Liberal Democrats criticised the plans for mass deportations, saying they risked “ripping up” human rights and potentially paying autocratic regimes to take people back.
Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said: “Of course Nigel Farage wants to follow his idol Vladimir Putin in ripping up the human rights convention. Winston Churchill would be turning in his grave. Doing so would only make it harder for each of us as individuals to hold the government to account and stop it trampling on our freedoms.”
Green Party MP Ellie Chowns accused Mr Farage of “inflammatory rhetoric” and accused him of “whipping up anger, hatred and even disorder”.
“The policy proposals themselves are unworkable. They rely on ripping up swathes of international law and would likely face many legal obstacles in the UK courts that could use British common law to block such cruelty.”
