Reform pledges to send 400,000 asylum seekers home

A Reform government would revoke up to 400,000 refugees’ right to asylum and send them home if they entered the UK illegally, Nigel Farage will announce.

The Reform UK leader will pledge that an incoming Reform government would immediately review all migrants’ asylum grants going back five years to determine whether they had entered the UK illegally or could be safely returned home.

Under the plan, Home Office civil servants would be required to check if they entered the UK illegally by a small boat across the Channel, by lorry or by plane or if they had overstayed their visa and then claimed asylum or if their country of origin is now deemed safe by the Government.

If one or more of the three criteria was found to apply, the refugee and their dependents would have their leave to remain in the UK revoked and would be given an as yet unspecified period of time to leave the country.

The vast majority of migrants claiming asylum arrived via small boats or in the backs of lorries or by switching to claim refugee status after coming to Britain on a work, study or visitor visa.

Under the plan, if they failed to return to their home country voluntarily, they would be detained and removed from the UK by Reform’s proposed new Deportation Command, which would be charged with returning illegal migrants.

Reform has calculated that more than 400,000 migrants would be in scope of the new policy to review and revoke the asylum status of any illegal migrant or refugee who could be safely returned. This figure is on top of the 600,000 failed or rejected asylum seekers Reform has said it would deport.

The plan to strip successful asylum seekers of their status retrospectively goes further than Reform’s previously declared policy of barring anyone who arrived illegally in the UK from claiming asylum.

It will provoke an outcry from refugee groups and will be challenged in the courts, although Reform plans to change the law and withdraw from international refugee conventions in an attempt to neuter legal challenges.

The party has said it will quit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and withdraw from the 1951 Refugee Convention, which protects the rights of asylum seekers.

It has also proposed a new Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Act which would place a legal duty on the Home Secretary to remove from the UK any migrant without a legal right to remain.

Zia Yusuf, the Reform home affairs spokesman, said: “For years, Tory and Labour governments have presided over an invasion of Britain. They have effectively operated an open borders policy. Instead of upholding the law, they have rewarded those who broke it by entering Britain illegally.

“Reform will reverse this. Today we announce that a Reform government will review the previous five years of asylum grants, and anyone who broke into the country illegally or overstayed on another visa will be stripped of their status and deported. We will do what it takes to restore justice in Britain.”

Of more than 100,000 asylum claims last year, some 41 per cent or 41,262 entered the UK illegally on small boats, while a further 11 per cent arrived hidden in lorries or other vehicles or with no documentation.

A similar proportion of 39 per cent – or 39,095 migrants – claimed asylum after arriving legally on work, study or holiday visas, meaning that the vast majority of asylum seekers granted humanitarian protection would fall in scope of the Reform policy.

A Reform source said: “Assuming a Reform UK government is formed after a general election in 2029, we would expect over 400,000 people to be in scope of this policy. This is based on grants over the last two years, those currently in the asylum system, and those expected to enter it over the next three years.”

The Reform plans go further than Labour or the Tories, who have both set out policies toughening their approach to both asylum and migrants’ right to indefinite leave.

Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, introduced legal changes last month where refugee status for those granted asylum is now temporary and reviewed every 30 months. Refugees can be returned home if their country becomes safe after the reviews.

Refugees who arrive illegally will also have to wait up to 20 years before they qualify for permanent residence or indefinite leave to remain (ILR), four times the current timeframe of five years.

Reform has gone further on ILR by declaring that it will abolish it as an immigration category and rescind the status for those holding it. It will replace ILR with a five year renewable visa subject to higher salary thresholds, stricter rules around good character and higher standard of English.

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A Home Office spokesman said: “The Home Secretary is taking tough action to fix our broken immigration system by removing incentives that draw people here illegally, scaling up removals, and revoking the legal duty to provide asylum-seeker support – the largest reforms to the asylum system since the Second World War.

“We have also already made refugee status temporary and subject to review every 30 months for all adults claiming asylum.

“Alongside this, action has been taken against countries who fail to cooperate with the return of their citizens, and we’re ready to hit other nations that won’t play ball with visa penalties and full visa bans if necessary.”

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