UK’s Farage sets out plan for ‘mass deportation’ of asylum seekers
Former Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage set out plans on Saturday for “mass deportations” of migrants who have crossed the English Channel on small boats if his Reform UK party forms Britain’s next government.
In an interview with Saturday’s edition of The Times newspaper, Farage said he would withdraw Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights and sign deals with Afghanistan, Eritrea and other top countries of origin to repatriate illegal migrants.
Britain has seen regular small-scale protests in recent weeks outside hotels housing asylum seekers, spurred in part by concerns about public safety after some migrants were charged with sexual assault.
The Times said Farage wanted to create holding facilities for 24,000 migrants on air bases at a cost of 2.5 billion pounds ($3.4 billion) and operate five deportation flights a day with total deportations reaching the hundreds of thousands.
If that failed, asylum seekers could be held on Ascension Island, a British territory in the South Atlantic, to send a symbolic message, Farage said.
