Farage Unveils Australia-Inspired 'Mass Deportation' Strategy Amid UK Asylum Seeker Protests

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Former Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage laid out plans for “mass deportations” of asylum seekers who arrived on boats if he were to become Britain’s next prime minister, coinciding with demonstrations against hotels housing asylum seekers across the UK.

In an interview featured in Saturday’s edition of The Times newspaper, Farage mentioned he would pull Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights and establish agreements with Afghanistan, Eritrea, and other primary countries of origin to repatriate asylum seekers.

“We can choose to be pleasant to people and other countries, or we can adopt a very tough stance with them… Trump has shown this can be done effectively,” Farage remarked.

Regarding concerns if asylum seekers might face death or torture upon return to nations with poor human rights records, Farage expressed that he was more concerned about the potential threat asylum seekers posed to British citizens.

“I can’t take responsibility for authoritarian regimes around the world. But I can ensure the safety of women and girls on our streets,” he asserted.

Farage’s plan echoes Australia’s ‘stop the boats’ policy

Farage told The Times he would end the right to claim asylum or to challenge deportation for those who arrived by small boats by replacing existing human rights legislation and opting Britain out of refugee treaties, citing a national emergency.

“The aim of this legislation is mass deportations,” Farage said, adding that a “massive crisis” caused by asylum seekers was fuelling public anger.

The Times said Farage wanted to create holding facilities for 24,000 asylum seekers on air bases at a cost of 2.5 billion pounds ($5.22 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.

Individuals participate in a counter-demonstration to a Stand Up To Racism rally outside the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Horley, Surrey. Source: EPA / Gareth Fuller

Farage’s plan echoes Australia’s offshore processing system, which has been heavily criticised by human rights advocates.

Australia’s Operation Sovereign Borders policy initiative — established in 2013, pledging to “stop the boats” — is a military-led border security operation that takes a hard-line, zero-tolerance stance towards unapproved sea arrivals.

Individuals suspected of attempting to enter Australia are generally either intercepted and turned back or placed in offshore detention facilities in locations like Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.

Protesters clash with UK police over asylum seeker hotels

Meanwhile, police and protesters scuffled as demonstrations against hotels housing asylum seekers took place across the UK.

Demonstrations under the “Abolish Asylum System” slogan were held in major towns and cities around England, including Bristol, Exeter, Tamworth, Cannock, Nuneaton, Liverpool, Wakefield, Newcastle, Horley in Surrey and Canary Wharf in central London.

Aberdeen and Perth in Scotland and Mold in Flintshire, Wales, also held protests.

A separate batch of protests were organised by ‘Stand Up to Racism’ in Bristol, Cannock, Leicester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Wakefield, Horley and Long Eaton in Derbyshire.

In Bristol, mounted police were brought in to separate rival groups in the Castle Park, with officers scuffling with protesters.

People demonstrating at an Abolish Asylum System protest outside the Radisson Hotel in Perth, Scotland. Source: PA / Jane Barlow

A 37-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker.

In Liverpool, there were 11 arrests for offences including being drunk and disorderly, assault and affray, as a UK Independence Party protest was met by a counter-demonstration.

In Horley, approximately 200 anti-immigration demonstrators adorned with St George and Union flags confronted around 50 Stand Up to Racism protestors on Bonehurst Road.

Protest outside hotel housing asylum seekers in Orpington

Anti-racism activists display placards while marching towards St Mary Cray station from the TLK Apartments Hotel housing asylum seekers during a demonstration against the far-right in Orpington, Britain. Source: EPA / Tolga Akmen

The anti-racism protesters chanted, “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here.”

They were met with a torrent of abuse from the anti-migration group, one of whom yelled through a megaphone, “You’re all scum and you should be ashamed”, and “This wasn’t about racism”.

The two groups almost came together in the early afternoon, with lines of police separating them.

The ‘Stand Up to Racism’ protestors were guided into a smaller area as they continued to chant “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here”, which received the retort “No, they’re f***** not” from the opposing side of the street.

Saturday’s events come amid continued tension around the use of the hotels for asylum seekers.

On Tuesday, the High Court granted a local council a temporary injunction to remove asylum seekers from the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, from 12 September.

Regular protests had been held outside the hotel in recent weeks after an asylum seeker was charged with trying to kiss a 14-year-old girl, which he denies.

The government announced plans on Friday to appeal against the High Court’s refusal to allow it to intervene in the case and to further appeal against the temporary injunction.

Other local councils also publicly announced their intention to seek legal advice as to whether they could achieve a similar injunction for hotels in their areas.

‘Unacceptable’ delays causing massive backlogs

Meanwhile, a new fast-track asylum appeals process will be introduced to speed up the removal of people with no right to be in the UK, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has promised.

She said “completely unacceptable” delays in the appeals process left failed asylum seekers in the system for years.

There are about 51,000 asylum appeals waiting to be heard, taking on average more than a year to reach a decision.

As measures have been put in place to speed up initial decisions, court delays over appeals are now thought to be the biggest cause of pressure in the asylum accommodation system.

The government plans to set up a new independent panel focused on asylum appeals to help reduce the backlog, as first reported by the Sunday Times.

The new independent body will use professionally-trained adjudicators, rather than relying on judges.

Broader opinion polls show that immigration and asylum are the public’s greatest concern, just ahead of the economy, and Reform UK — which won five seats at last year’s general election — has topped recent voting intention polls.

Last year 37,000 people — mostly from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Vietnam and Eritrea — arrived in Britain from France by crossing the English Channel in small boats. The total was up by a quarter from 2023 and accounted for 9 per cent of net migration.

About two-thirds of people who arrive via small boats and claim asylum are successful and only three per cent have been deported, according to figures analysed by the University of Oxford.