Reform UK Announces Plans for UK Deportation Command and Immigration Policy Changes

Reform UK has outlined a series of proposed changes to the United Kingdom’s immigration and policing policies, including the creation of a new agency and adjustments to existing legal frameworks.

Zia Yusuf, who was recently appointed as Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, announced the party’s intention to establish a UK Deportation Command. This agency would be structured similarly to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and would focus on detaining and deporting individuals without legal status in the UK.

The proposed UK Deportation Command would be designed to detain up to 24,000 migrants at any one time. According to the party’s plans, the agency would have the capacity to deport as many as 288,000 people each year if implemented.

Reform UK also intends to introduce an Illegal Migration Mass Deportation Act. The party stated that this legislation would require deportations by law and restrict the ability of courts to intervene in the process.

What the numbers show

• The UK Deportation Command would have a detention capacity of 24,000
• The agency’s annual deportation target is up to 288,000 individuals
• In 2025, over 41,000 asylum seekers arrived in the UK via small boats

Further policy proposals include ending indefinite leave to remain and replacing it with a five-year renewable work visa. Eligibility for this visa would be linked to a high salary threshold, as outlined by the party’s published plans.

Reform UK’s proposals also cover the withdrawal of the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights. The party announced its intention to pursue this step as part of its broader immigration and legal reforms.

Additional measures in the party’s platform involve stopping benefit payments to foreign nationals and introducing visa bans for countries that do not cooperate with repatriation efforts. Countries specifically named in the proposal include Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan, and Sudan.

The party’s plans also address policing and counter-terrorism. Reform UK proposes expanding stop-and-search powers, eliminating diversity initiatives within police forces, banning the conversion of churches into mosques, and focusing the Prevent programme exclusively on Islamist extremism.

* This article is based on publicly available information at the time of writing.