Reform UK’s Nigel Farage Proposes Deporting 90,000 Asylum Seekers in Immigration Overhaul

Nigel Farage has put forward a plan to suspend the UK asylum system for a full parliamentary term and deport about 90,000 people with unresolved asylum or humanitarian-protection appeals. The proposal could include children and mothers whose cases remain pending. It is not current government policy.

The party calls the platform “Restoring Justice” and scheduled its announcement for October 12, 2026. It would void outstanding applications, reject new ones and halt the tribunal process that normally hears appeals.

Farage said the government should declare a “national security emergency” to justify sweeping away asylum tribunals, legal refugee routes and resettlement schemes. He described the duty of government as protecting British citizens.

“We cannot accept more asylum seekers while we still have no idea how many people are in the country illegally and the threat they pose.”

Farage also said: “A Reform government will always put British people first and protect our borders.”

The plan would stop decisions on both new and pending claims

The affected group is described as people whose asylum or humanitarian-protection appeals have not been decided. One reported count puts the caseload at more than 90,000 outstanding appeals; the proposal does not identify a separate number for children, mothers or families.

Under the plan, officials who currently handle asylum claims would be reassigned to review and overturn earlier refugee grants. The suspension would last a full parliamentary term, potentially up to five years depending on its length. During that period, the party says the government would make no new grants of refugee status or humanitarian protection.

Labour Party chairperson Bridget Phillipson called the plan “a clear sign of desperation and weakness.” She said abandoning people escaping war and persecution would be rejected by most Britons as “an assault on our common values.” Phillipson also accused Farage of “casting around for more and more extreme policies” amid political difficulties involving finances, police investigations and the rival Restore Britain movement.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the proposals “largely copy” Conservative policy. He argued: “Only the Conservatives have a serious and credible plan to fix our borders.” Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson said: “Reform and the Conservatives were the architects of the failed asylum system and now they will exploit it at every opportunity—including Farage’s latest announcement.”

The proposal reaches beyond tribunal changes

Reform’s proposed changes would reach the legal framework around asylum, not just the speed or administration of removals. The party says it would withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Convention on Human Rights, repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 and disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention to block legal challenges.

It also proposes ending humanitarian protection and using visa bans and tariffs to pressure other countries to accept people deported from the UK. Those steps would raise legal questions involving individual assessment of claims, appeal rights, procedural fairness, family life and protections for children.

The proposals could also conflict with protections against sending people back to persecution or serious harm. Implementation would require major legal and treaty-policy changes, and would likely face challenges. Pending claims are not automatically refused under current rules because a political party proposes cancelling the tribunal process.

Children and mothers have no stated blanket exemption

The proposed removals cover unresolved claims broadly. That leaves women, mothers, children and family groups potentially affected if they are part of the pending caseload, but the plan gives no separate operational account of how families would be removed or what safeguards would apply to unaccompanied children.

The party also proposes closing legal resettlement routes and removing people who entered through them. The UK scheme reopened on September 28, 2026, under Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. Labour said about one-quarter of referrals were expected to involve Afghan women and girls and Palestinian refugees.

Reform said it would protect Afghans who worked with British forces if the Ministry of Defence had verified their records. Party officials estimated the exception would cover fewer than 1,000 people. The proposal does not set out a general exemption for children, mothers, women or other vulnerable groups.

Mahmood announced in March 2026 that people granted refugee status would receive temporary protection, reviewed every 30 months. She described the reopened resettlement scheme as a safe and legal route for genuine refugees.

The deportation figures refer to several different proposals

The 90,000 figure concerns people with outstanding claims or appeals. It is distinct from broader estimates attached to other parts of the party’s platform.

Those wider proposals could make roughly 400,000 people liable for deportation, including refugees whose grants would be reviewed, visa overstayers and people from countries a Reform government considered safe. The party has separately suggested that barring people who arrived by small boat could lead to as many as 600,000 deportations over five years. Another pledge targets up to one million people during a parliamentary term, including undocumented residents and small-boat arrivals.

The UK recorded 93,525 asylum claims in the year ending March 2026, down 12% from the previous year. That annual claims total is close in scale to the proposed 90,000 removals, but it measures a different group: new claims over a year, rather than unresolved cases and appeals.

Conservative proposals cited by Philp include barring asylum claims from people who entered illegally, abolishing the immigration tribunal, ending Labour resettlement routes and leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. Other Conservative proposals include removing people within one week of arrival.

The platform is not an operative deportation order

The proposal remains an electoral platform, not an enacted rule or government order. No bill, regulation or court judgment implementing it is identified in the material. Carrying it out would depend on Reform forming a government, Parliament passing legislation and subsequent administrative action, alongside the result of likely legal challenges.

The plan would suspend asylum processing for a parliamentary term and prevent new refugee-status grants during that period. Its intended announcement date is October 12, 2026.

This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Consult a qualified immigration attorney about your specific case.