Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party, announced on Monday he would ban anyone being granted asylum for up to five years if his party wins the next national election as part of a crackdown on immigration to Britain.
Farage, a leading figure in the Brexit campaign, said the roughly 90,000 pending asylum applications would be declared void, new claims would be automatically rejected, and failed applicants would be returned either to their home countries or a safe third country.
Speaking on the south coast of England, Farage said he could impose tariffs, visa bans or airspace restrictions on countries refusing to accept the return of asylum seekers.
“We want to get back to being a normal country,” Farage said, “a country that detains and deports people that come illegally, as virtually every other country in the world does”.
Reform UK was leading in the opinion polls until this summer, but a combination of ongoing police and parliamentary investigations into how the party is funded plus Andy Burnham taking over as Labour prime minister has pushed the party into second place. Reform UK denies breaking electoral law.
The next election is due in 2029. Immigration remains the top issue for British voters, according to the polls, driven in part by frustration over successive governments’ failure to stop tens of thousands of asylum seekers arriving in boats from mainland Europe.
In the year ending in June, Britain received 85,891 asylum applicants, a 21% decrease compared to the same period a year earlier. Individuals from Pakistan, Eritrea, Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan made up the largest number of applicants.
Reform said on Monday it would scrap all legal routes for asylum resettlement, but exempt Ukrainians who fled to Britain after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Refugee charities have said Farage’s deportation plans would mean sending asylum seekers back to countries, such as Afghanistan or Iran, where they could face persecution, torture and death.