This morning, Reform leader Nigel Farage set out radical plans to curb illegal migration to the UK.
Many important details were missing – the list of policies covers just two pages of a five-page document – but there was enough to give us a broad impression of what these measures would look like in practice.
Put simply, Reform is proposing a dramatic reshaping of the UK’s relationship to international law in order to tackle what it regards as a monumental national crisis.
Take the United Nations Convention Against Torture – more than 170 countries are signed up to that agreement, including some Farage would like to emulate such as Australia and the US.
But Reform would ‘disapply’ the convention for up to five years, so it would be able to carry out its mass deportation programme.
Dr Peter Walsh, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, said Reform’s plans ‘wouldn’t be without ramifications, including reputational ones on the world stage’.
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He told Metro all references to the principle of non-refoulement – which says you can’t send back refugees who are at risk of torture and death – would need to be removed from British law.
Dr Walsh said: ‘This is within the realm of possibility.
‘I think this wouldn’t happen overnight, but that would set the legal groundwork to make this possible.’
The key challenge, he argued, would be figuring out a way to get countries like Afghanistan, Iran and Eritrea to take back their own citizens while keeping the programme within Reform’s ambitious £10 billion budget.
Back at home, one of the biggest impacts of the proposals would be the effective abolition of the British asylum system.
The party’s policy document says: ‘If you came to the country illegally, you are ineligible for asylum in the UK.’
There is no legal route to claim asylum. So, this means the end of the idea of UK as a sanctuary for people fleeing war or persecution around the world.
Some exemptions may apply, like an official refugee programme such as the one created for Ukrainians following Russia’s 2022 invasion.
The document also implies asylum could still be granted to people who arrived in the UK legally on a visa but claim asylum before it expires.
How does the asylum system work at the moment?
The key challenge in the current asylum system is figuring out who can be considered a refugee and who cannot.
If the person in question is indeed a refugee – i.e., someone who faces persecution or death if they return to their home country – then they can stay in the UK. If not, they can be sent back.
It takes time to figure out that vital fact, and the large number of people claiming asylum who have arrived in the country over the past few years has resulted in a significant backlog.
The tens of thousands of people currently housed in temporary accommodation such as hotels are all waiting for this decision.
Labour says it is speeding up the process and working through the backlog. The number of cases in the asylum system is 18% lower than where it was a year ago, according to the latest figures.
However, the number of people claiming asylum in the UK reached the highest level on record in the year ending June 2025 at just over 111,000.
Reform’s solution is to consider nobody at all a refugee – perhaps unless they’re part of an official resettlement scheme, though this is not addressed in the party’s policy document.
Another major element of the plan is the mass incarceration of people who have arrived in the country illegally.
Reform says ‘basic but not punitive’ detention facilities for up to 24,000 people could be created within 18 months. They would not be allowed out and not be permitted an opportunity for bail.
Former party chairman Zia Yusuf has said repeatedly this would require about a third of one square mile – meaning about 35 square metres for each inhabitant, a fraction of which would be actual living quarters.
This would then allow up to 24,000 to be deported each month using five daily flights chartered by the Home Office, according to the policy document.
As for where in the country these ‘Secure Immigration Removal Centres’ would be constructed, Reform isn’t telling.
Both Farage and Yusuf said they wouldn’t suggest locations because they were concerned the government would buy up the sites and build a solar farm.
More question marks surround the costings of the plan, and how such a radical new approach to immigration could cost only around £10 billion.
Asked why he was confident that figure was accurate, Farage joked: ‘Because Zia is really good at maths.’
There was laughter in the room, and the Reform leader moved on without any more explanation.
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