London – Reform UK leader Nigel Farage used a speech on England’s south coast to outline a sweeping immigration enforcement plan he would implement if his party wins the 2029 national election. Farage said the roughly 90,000 pending asylum applications would be declared void, new claims would be automatically rejected, and those whose claims fail would be returned either to their home nations or to a designated safe third country.

Proposed enforcement tools

Farage added that the government could impose tariffs, visa bans, or even airspace restrictions on countries that refuse to accept returned asylum seekers. “We want to get back to being a normal country, a country that detains and deports people that come illegally, as virtually every other country in the world does,” he said.

Political context

Reform UK had led opinion polls earlier this year, but investigations into party funding and the rise of Labour Prime Minister Andy Burnham have pushed it into second place. The party denies any breach of electoral law. Immigration remains the top issue for British voters, driven by frustration over successive governments’ inability to stop large numbers of asylum seekers arriving by boat from mainland Europe.

Recent asylum trends

In the year ending June, Britain received 85,891 asylum applicants, a 21% decline from the same period a year earlier. Applicants from Pakistan, Eritrea, Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan comprised the largest groups. Reform UK said it would scrap all legal routes for asylum resettlement, except for Ukrainians who fled after Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Charity concerns

Refugee charities warned that Farage’s deportation plan could send asylum seekers back to nations such as Afghanistan or Iran, where they risk persecution, torture or death.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.