Nigel Farage has declared that a Reform government would transform military barracks currently accommodating asylum seekers into detention facilities on its very first day in office.
Speaking to reporters while visiting Crowborough in East Sussex, Mr Farage pointed to the local converted barracks now housing close to 400 asylum seekers.
He said: “A secure army camp down the road wouldn’t worry the residents of this little town of Crowborough.
“It is the fact they’re all free to roam, and the numbers are going, 350 yesterday, 30 more today. Goodness knows where this is going.”
Reform has pledged to introduce laws rendering all asylum applications from illegal arrivals inadmissible, clearing the path for forced removals or voluntary departures.
The party’s proposals include creating a “UK deportation command”, tasked with overseeing the expulsion of up to 600,000 migrants across a five-year period.
To achieve this, the party would withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and sidestep the 1951 Refugee Convention.
The plan envisions five chartered deportation flights operating daily to return asylum seekers to their countries of origin.
Additionally, the party has called for a tenfold expansion of immigration removal centre capacity, reaching 24,000 places within 18 months.
Mr Farage acknowledged that exiting the ECHR would trigger “massive battles” with the courts, with Danny Kruger currently working on preparations for how to implement these measures swiftly.
The party leader framed the policy as a response to what he described as both a national security and social crisis.
He characterised the situation as requiring an emergency declaration, citing concerns about terrorism alongside what he called a “pattern of serious sexual offences”.
Mr Farage said: “There’s not a week that goes by now when we don’t see horrendous sexual assaults that are carried out.
“I’m sorry, but there are cultural differences between young men that come from certain parts of the world in terms of their attitudes towards what’s acceptable.”
He argued that declaring an emergency would provide a temporary mechanism to bypass the Human Rights Act, which he said would take longer to address through conventional means.
The Reform leader proposed offering migrants £1,000 to return home and rebuild their lives, dismissing the Home Secretary’s trial scheme providing incentive payments of up to £10,000 per person.
“Forty grand for a family? Crikey, I’ll make the crossing for that. No, that’s ludicrous. I think up to £1,000, something like that, which back in most of these countries would be enough to start again.”
Currently, migrants without the right to remain can apply for up to £3,000 in voluntary departure support under certain circumstances.
Mr Farage pointed to claims from the US administration that most deportees during Donald Trump’s second term left voluntarily, though researchers have disputed this assertion.
He conceded that some migrants would inevitably vanish into the black economy, acknowledging this was already occurring from existing sites.
“There are practical difficulties, but we have to show intent. We have to show will. And there are ways of doing this,” Mr Farage stated when pressed on the challenges.
Approximately 170,000 asylum seekers are currently awaiting initial decisions on their claims or appealing rejections, with many remaining in hotels or shared accommodation.
Labour has committed to shutting all asylum hotels and relocating migrants to larger facilities, including barracks and houses of multiple occupation distributed evenly across the country.
A Labour source branded Reform’s deportation proposals as “fantasy” policy.
They said: “Even the US are paying people thousands of dollars to leave the country. Based on the current mechanism in the UK of up to £3,000, the numbers are not there.
“It will end up costing the taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds to house them.”
