By David Milliken
LONDON (Reuters) -Former Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage set out plans on Saturday for “mass deportations” of migrants who have crossed the English Channel on small boats if his Reform UK party forms Britain’s next government.
In an interview with Saturday’s edition of The Times newspaper, Farage said he would withdraw Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights and sign deals with Afghanistan, Eritrea and other top countries of origin to repatriate illegal migrants.
“We can be nice to people, we can be nice to other countries, or we can be very tough to other countries … I mean (U.S. President Donald) Trump has proved this point quite comprehensively,” Farage said.
Asked if he was concerned that asylum seekers would be killed or tortured if they were sent to countries with poor human rights records, Farage said he was more worried about the threat he believed asylum seekers posed to Britons.
“I can’t be responsible for despotic regimes all over the world. But I can be responsible for the safety of women and girls on our streets,” he said.
Britain has seen regular small-scale protests in recent weeks outside hotels housing asylum seekers, spurred in part by concerns about public safety after some migrants were charged with sexual assault.
Broader opinion polls show that immigration and asylum are the public’s greatest concern, just ahead of the economy, and Reform UK – which won five seats at last year’s general election – has topped recent voting intention polls.
Last year 37,000 people – mostly from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Vietnam and Eritrea – arrived in Britain from France by crossing the English Channel in small boats. The total was up by a quarter from 2023 and accounted for 9% of net migration.
About two-thirds of people who arrive via small boats and claim asylum are successful and only 3% have been deported, according to figures analysed by the University of Oxford.
Farage told The Times he would end the right to claim asylum or to challenge deportation for those who arrived by small boats by replacing existing human rights legislation and opting Britain out of refugee treaties, citing a national emergency.
“The aim of this legislation is mass deportations,” Farage said, adding that a “massive crisis” caused by asylum seekers was fuelling public anger.
The Times said Farage wanted to create holding facilities for 24,000 migrants on air bases at a cost of 2.5 billion pounds ($3.4 billion) and operate five deportation flights a day with total deportations reaching the hundreds of thousands.
If that failed, asylum seekers could be held on Ascension Island, a British territory in the South Atlantic, to send a symbolic message, Farage said.
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(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
