You only need to think back to the Tories’ failed Rwanda scheme to see just how unworkable these proposals are
The first and most crucial point to be made about the mass deportation plan Nigel Farage announced at the beginning of the week is that it is immoral. Ripping up human rights laws, and deporting people to countries where they could face imprisonment, torture or death is Trump-style authoritarianism.
Beyond that, the plan is unworkable. You only need to think back to the Tories’ failed inhumane Rwanda scheme, which cost the taxpayer £700 million and did not result in a single deportation, to see just how impractical these proposals are. As with the Tories, Reform could throw billions of taxpayer’s money at their cruel plan, but it wouldn’t work.
Here’s why:
1. Deportations to Rwanda, Albania, Afghanistan, and Eritrea
Farage has said he would deport asylum seekers to third countries and pay governments to take their own citizens back. Reform has boasted that Rwanda and Afghanistan are open to making deals with them.
In reality, Rwanda would only consider reviving the agreement they previously brokered with Tories if Britain pays £50 million in unsettled debt from the failed Rwanda scheme.
In May, Albania’s socialist prime minister, Edi Rama, ruled out providing ‘return hubs’ for asylum seekers the UK wants to deport.
Rwanda was effectively blocked by the courts due to human rights concerns. Sure, Farage would scrap several human rights laws to get around this, but courts could still use common law to block deportations. Particularly to countries with repressive regimes like Iran and Afghanistan.
2. The Ascension Island fantasy
Right-wingers are obsessed with this fantasy of sending refugees to this very remote British Overseas Territory for processing. Priti Patel looked at this policy when she was home secretary back in 2020. The Home Office and Foreign Office decided it was unworkable. The island is 4000 miles away, you can only get there by plane and it doesn’t have a runway capable of handling large planes. Rishi Sunak dug the policy out again in 2023, as a backup plan in case the Rwanda plan didn’t work (funny, it’s as though they knew it wouldn’t work). The Ascension Island plan, like the Rwanda scheme, never happened. See the pattern here?
3. Costings
The Reform leader said the plan would cost £10 billion over five years, which is, by the way, far less than what ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe estimated in April. Lowe said his research with the Centre for Migration Control indicated that a mass deportation policy would cost £47 billion over five years.
Farage’s comment that his policy could “save tens and possibly hundreds of billions of pounds” is an indication of just how sketchy Reform’s math is on this. Which is it? Where are Reform’s numbers on this?
4. Detention centres
As of June 2024, there were about 2,200 spaces in detention centres, including 1,622 in use, 530 spaces available, plus another 1,000 that were not yet operational and 1,200 possible detention centre spaces.
Reform wants to increase detention facilities to 24,000 spaces. A BBC estimate has indicated that creating this number of spaces would cost around £12bn. Reform’s plan includes converting RAF bases into detention centres, yet Farage couldn’t name a single RAF base he’d turn into a detention centre.
Remember how the RAF Scampton site, which the Tories wanted to use for ‘non-detained’ asylum accommodation, was closed before it opened? How Napier Barracks, which is soon to close, was called “unfit for habitation”? And how there was legionella on board the Bibby Stockholm? The list goes on.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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