Media: UK’s reform targets illegal migration with ICE-inspired agency

Britain’s right-wing populist party Reform UK pledged to establish a new deportation agency modelled on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and withdraw from certain human rights treaties if it wins power, describing current migration levels as a “national security emergency”.

With an election due by August 2029 and Reform polling strongly, party leader Nigel Farage has stepped up policy announcements to position the party as a credible governing force, Caliber.Az reports via Reuters.

Zia Yusuf, Reform’s policy chief on home affairs, unveiled plans for a “Deportation Command” at Dover, the main arrival point for small boats crossing the Channel from France.

He said the proposed body would be empowered to remove up to 288,000 people annually and operate under a new “Illegal Migration Mass Deportation Act” designed to compel removals and limit judicial intervention.

“Our country is being invaded,” Yusuf told reporters, pledging that a Reform government would “end and reverse this invasion”.

The party also said it would halt benefit payments to foreign nationals and impose visa bans on countries it says refuse to accept the return of their citizens, including Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan.

Reform’s proposals draw comparisons with the U.S. agency U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose enforcement practices have faced criticism in recent years. Yusuf said Britain would not experience similar controversies under a Reform administration.

Britain’s governing Labour Party rejected the plans as divisive. Party chair Anna Turley said Labour had already removed nearly 60,000 people with no legal right to remain since taking office in 2024.

“Reform wants to divide our country, not deliver for the British people,” she said in a statement.

Migration remains one of the most prominent political issues in Britain. While overall net migration fell last year, crossings of the Channel in small boats rose, with more than 41,000 asylum seekers arriving in 2025, the second-highest annual total on record, according to official data.

Despite holding only eight of the 650 seats in parliament, Reform is seeking to capitalise on voter concerns over immigration to challenge both Labour and the opposition Conservatives at the next election.

By Aghakazim Guliyev