The Taliban have said they are ‘ready and willing’ to take back Afghan refugees ‘illegal or legal’ under Nigel Farage’s plans for mass deportations.
The Islamist insurgents also insist it would be easier to deal with the Reform UK leader than current prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.
The number of Afghans arriving in the UK rose substantially after the Taliban takeover in the summer of 2021, with most using small boats to cross the English Channel after British forces pulled out of Kabul.
An unnamed senior official, based in Kabul, told The Telegraph: ‘We are ready and willing to receive and embrace whoever he [Nigel Farage] sends us. We are prepared to work with anyone who can help end the struggles of Afghan refugees, as we know many of them do not have a good life abroad.
‘We will not take money to accept our own people, but we welcome aid to support newcomers, since there are challenges in accommodating and feeding those returning from Iran and Pakistan.
‘Afghanistan is home to all Afghans, and the Islamic Emirate is determined to make this country a place where everyone – those already here, those returning, or those being sent back from the West by Mr Farage or anyone else – can live with dignity.’
Farage’s dramatic proposals would be put in effect if Reform wins power at the next general election – though they would likely face considerable legal obstacles.
They include creating detention facilities capable of holding 24,000 people – roughly a quarter of the total current prison capacity across the UK – within 18 months.
Those people would not be permitted to leave the site before they are deported en masse.
The Taliban official added: ‘We will have to see what Mr Farage does when or if he becomes prime minister of Britain, but since his views are different, it may be easier to deal with him than with the current ones.
‘We will accept anyone he sends, whether they are legal or illegal refugees in Britain.’
A Reform government would scrap the Human Rights Act and drop out of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Refugee Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture and the anti-trafficking convention of the Council of Europe.
At an event in Oxford launching ‘Operation Restoring Justice’, Reform’s Zia Yusuf described this as a ‘non-exhaustive list’ of international agreements that the country would be ‘disapplying’ for up to five years.
That would allow the UK to deport everyone who has entered the UK illegally – typically those who don’t have a visa – without giving them the opportunity to claim asylum.
Farage told the Sunday Times at the weekend: ‘They would be arrested and detained. They’d be put into disused military bases.
‘We would potentially need some prefab buildings put up, something like that.’
Standing in front of an enormous Union flag at today’s event, he declined to suggest any locations where these facilities could be placed, arguing the government would buy up those sites and ‘build a solar farm’.
Deportation agreements would be signed with countries including Afghanistan and Eritrea, where those who fled could be at risk of serious harm or death from despotic regimes.
Asked about the possibility, Farage said: ‘Does it bother me? Of course it bothers me, but what really bothers me is what happens on the streets of our country.’
He later added: ‘We cannot be responsible for all the sins that happen around the world, it is just not possible.’
A fraught moment for Reform, writes Craig Munro
Craig Munro, Metro’s Senior Political Reporter, reacts to the launch event in Oxford:
This is a risky moment for Nigel Farage and Reform UK.
Everyone recognises that immigration is the party’s strongest issue, and they’ve been successful in helping to push it to the top of the news agenda.
Polls show that since the start of this year, it has overtaken the economy and the health service as the issue Brits care most about.
But up until this morning, Reform’s plans to solve what it describes as a crisis have all been hypothetical.
Now the country knows those plans in detail – though some key details, including exactly who would be exempted and where these detention facilities would be located, remain unclear.
Voters have the opportunity to decide whether they’d be happy seeing their government carrying out the kinds of measures outlined today.
How would they solve the asylum backlog? By making it practically impossible for anyone to claim asylum in the UK.
How would they end the use of hotels as housing? By rapidly building what would essentially be mass incarceration centres.
Those proposals are now out in the world, and if they strike too many voters as excessive or extreme, Farage could see his dream of entering No 10 slipping away.
In Oxford, Yusuf said questions over how these policies would affect women and girls who are sent back to Afghanistan are ‘bogus’ and deflected to talking about young men.
Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme this morning, the former Reform chairman said his party would be prepared to give money to the Taliban government in Afghanistan as part of a deal.
Farage later confirmed this policy would not apply to Afghan interpreters who assisted the British military.
Reform’s plans had previously attracted criticism from charities supporting people who seek safety in the UK.
Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said: ‘After the horrors of World War II, Britain and its allies agreed that refugees who come to our countries in search of safety should get a fair chance to apply for asylum.
‘That tradition is something we should protect, not abandon.’
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said the plan ‘crumbles under the most basic scrutiny’, adding: ‘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.’
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