Here's What's In Reform's Mass Deportation Plan – And Why It Won't Work

Nigel Farage addresses journalists during a press conference unveiling Reform's new immigration policy.Nigel Farage launched Reform’s new immigration policy with great fanfare – but in the end left the public with just as many questions as answers on what it will actually mean in practice.He declared that if elected prime minister at the next general election, his government would look to deport 600,000 immigrants who have arrived in the UK by illegal means.Doing nothing, Farage insisted, was not an option.“The mood in the country around this issue is a mix between total despair and rising anger,” the Reform leader declared.“And I would say this, that without action, without somehow the contract between the Government and the people being renewed, without some trust coming back, then I fear deeply that that anger will grow.“In fact, I think there is now, as a result of this, a genuine threat to public order.”Here, HuffPost UK looks at what is in the Reform plan and assesses it’s chances of success.‘Operation Restoring Justice’Once you look past the Trump-esque title, what Reform are proposing looks remarkably similar to many of the things the last Tory government tried – and failed – to implement when they were in power.Like the Conservatives, Reform says it would ensure that everyone arriving in the UK illegally, including women and unaccompanied children, would be arrested, detained in disused RAF sites and then deported.In order to stop so-called “activist judges” blocking their plans, the party would leave the European Convention on Human Rights and replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights, something Dominic Raab found was impossible when he tried it.Leaving the ECHR would also have serious implications for the Good Friday Agreement, which Farage said he could “re-negotiate”.In response, a spokesman for Keir Starmer said: “Anyone who is proposing to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement is not serious and that is why we are focused on the serious, practical steps that will repair the chaos that the asylum system was left in, return people who have no right to be here and deal with the issue of small boat crossings.”Reform would also quit the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture and the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking.The party also pledged to scale up detention capacity for asylum seekers to 24,000 and secure deals with countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iran.The Tories’ failed Rwanda scheme, which cost £700 million and failed to send a single asylum seeker to the country against their will, would also be revived.Five deportation flights a day would be chartered to remove the migrants from the UK.Will It Work?There is nothing to suggest that the Reform plan will be any more effective than Tory or Labour attempts to bring down illegal immigration.For starters, Farage was notably evasive when it came to saying where the new detention centres he is proposing would be located.Bizarrely, he claimed that to do so would simply invite the Labour government to sell off the land for solar farms so Reform could not use them.In reality, the Reform leader’s reluctance to give more details is almost certainly linked to the fact that such sites are very unpopular with the local population.As one former Home Office official told HuffPost UK: “Detention isn’t simple. Tell me which community wants a massive camp on their doorstep.”Paying The TalibanIn order for Reform’s deportation plan to work, there need to be places for the failed asylum seekers to be sent to.One of the party’s most eye-catching proposals is the plan to strike returns agreements with countries with poor human rights record like Afghanistan, or which are openly hostile to the UK, like Iran.Zia Yusuf, the former Reform chairman who is now a key adviser to Farage, admitted this morning that Afghanistan’s Taliban regime could be paid by the UK to take back those who had fled the country to come to the UK.Asked what financial incentives he would give to Iran, he dodged the question.Another country mentioned by Farage as a potential location for deportees is Albania.However, the country’s prime minister, Edi Rama, has previously ruled out entering into such an arrangement with the UK.What Has The Reaction Been?Unsurprisingly, Reform’s political opponents have been united in their condemnation of the plan.Labour chair Ellie Reeves said Farage had failed to give “a single answer to any of the practical, financial or ethical questions about how their plan would work”.She said: “Nigel Farage can’t say where his detention centres will be, can’t say what will happen to women and children, and can’t say how he’ll convince hostile regimes like Iran to take people back.”Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Farage’s plan crumbles under the most basic scrutiny. The idea that Reform UK is going to magic up some new places to detain people and deport them to, but don’t have a clue where those places would be, is taking the public for fools.”The Tories, meanwhile, accused Farage of ripping off their ideas.Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “Reform have not done the important work necessary to get a grip on the immigration crisis and instead have produced a copy and paste of our proposals.”Related...Keir Starmer Dismisses Nigel Farage's Mass Deportation Plan With A Simple 2-Word Slapdown'That's Quite A Flip-Flop': BBC Presenter Burns Nigel Farage Over Deportation U-TurnNigel Farage Says Reform Will Deport All Illegal Immigrants. But Last Year He Said It Was 'Impossible'

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