Farage unveils £10bn mass deportation plan for boat arrivals

Protesters demonstrate outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Scotland (Illustrative image) (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images) Getty Images

Nigel Farage has unveiled Reform UK's most radical immigration proposal yet - a £10 billion mass deportation plan promising five charter flights leaving Britain daily and detention centres housing 24,000 people. The Clacton MP said the scheme could see hundreds of thousands deported if his party entered government.

The plan includes immediate arrest of all small boat arrivals, automatic detention and forced deportation to countries including Afghanistan and Eritrea. Reform UK proposes building detention centres on disused RAF bases and establishing deals with third countries, potentially reviving the Conservative Party's Rwanda plan or agreements with Albania.

Legal framework overhaul

The first step involves leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and scrapping the Human Rights Act. This would be followed by legislation barring those arriving on small boats from claiming asylum in the UK.

Farage said: "The aim of this legislation is mass deportations. 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."

Unprecedented scale and cost

According to the Daily Mail, the five-year programme would cost £10 billion, including £2.5 billion for detention centres, £2 billion for diplomatic incentives to receiving countries, and £1.5 billion each for staffing and charter flights. The plan, dubbed "Operation Restoring Justice", would process asylum seekers through emergency legislation called the "Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill".

The Express reports the scheme includes a voluntary returns programme offering £2,500 to migrants who agree to self-deportation within six months. This represents the most comprehensive deportation strategy proposed by any UK political party in recent history.

Record crossings fuel crisis

Nearly 28,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats so far this year, representing a record for this point in the calendar since data collection began in 2018. BBC data shows 111,000 asylum applications were made in the year to June 2025, whilst government spending on asylum fell 12 per cent to £4.76 billion despite increased applications.

Sir Keir Starmer's Government struggles with rising tensions over hotels housing asylum seekers. A temporary injunction was granted to Epping Forest District Council to remove asylum seekers from the Bell Hotel in Epping, with the Home Office announcing Friday it would appeal the High Court's decision.

Government and opposition response

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said ministers are working to close hotels housing asylum seekers "as swiftly as possible" as part of an "orderly" programme. The Government has pledged to crack down on smuggling gangs to deter Channel crossings.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp dismissed the proposals as recycled Tory ideas. He said: "This big reveal is just recycling many ideas the Conservatives have already announced. Nigel Farage previously claimed mass deportations were impossible, and now he says it's his policy."

South Norfolk Council confirmed the Home Office intends to stop housing asylum seekers at the Park Hotel in Diss. Council leader Daniel Elmer said: "The Home Office thought it could just impose this change and that we would accept it."

Sources used: "PA Media", "BBC", "Daily Mail", "The Standard", "Express" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.