Today in Dover, Reform UK’s spokesperson for home affairs Zia Yusuf unveiled a series of policy announcements as part of the party’s central intention to reduce immigration if it were to form the next government.
As part of Reform UK’s plans for mass deportations, Yusuf announced that the party would establish a new removals agency called UK Deportation Command – a Trump-inspired creation modelled on the US’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (commonly known as ICE).
This new agency would supposedly have the capacity to detain 24,000 migrants at a time and carry out up to 288,000 removals a year (supported by expanded charter flight operations), with Yusuf declaring that “this programme will be the biggest mass deportation programme in this country’s history”.
He also announced that a future Reform UK government would scrap indefinite leave to remain (ILR), replacing it with a renewable five-year work visa and a dedicated spouse visa. Reform UK also aims to deliver net negative migration.
Yusuf’s call for “a home that is recognisably yours” and that the UK is being “invaded” by migrants may well resonate with straight-talking, working-class parts of the country, which have grown anxious over astonishing demographic changes and the impact of the small-boats emergency.
Leaving the ECHR is now a common call in conservative circles, but to facilitate deportations at a high level, international agreements with prominent countries of origin when it comes to illegal migration – such as Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Iran, and Somalia – are likely to be needed.
A suspension of visa issuance for countries that refuse to accept the return of their nationals who have no legal right to remain in the United Kingdom sounds reasonable in theory, but how workable would it be in practice?
Would it be easier to facilitate such returns and deportations if they are complemented by the promise of international development funding as opposed to the threat of suspension of visa issuance? Would the UK be best served by financially supporting refugee camps abroad and providing them with humanitarian aid to reduce the number seeking asylum in the UK?
Reform's ICE-style immigration plan requires a medium-sized carrot and a very large stick - Rakib Ehsan | Getty Images
In addition to this, while Reform UK’s plans to deliver net negative migration may be welcomed by some, there is little being said on how it would wean the country off its immigration hyper-reliance in key sectors.
Driving down immigration numbers also requires a comprehensive skills and training strategy for UK citizens – government, business, and trade unions co-operating effectively to maximise the potential of the British domestic workforce.
This would need to be blended with welfare and tax reforms, which ultimately incentivise work. There is also the matter of what Reform UK would be willing to do to hit its net negative migration target.
Encouraging productive and dynamic expats to return to the UK is an entirely reasonable aim, but would it get to the stage that a future Reform UK government would have to end work visas going to high-earning migrants who make large net contributions to public finances over the course of their lifetime, as warned by Dr Madeleine Sumption of the Migratory Observatory?
While Yusuf’s intervention may have struck the right notes for those who are genuinely concerned by matters of immigration, integration, and identity, it must be recognised that there are no quick fixes and that addressing the challenges the country faces is much easier said than done.
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