Reform UK Reveals the Tough Action It Will Take to Stop Illegal Migrant Boats From Reaching Britain if Nigel Farage Becomes Prime Minister

Britain’s borders are facing a serious crisis. For many years, both Conservative and Labour governments have promised to take firm action against illegal immigration. However, tens of thousands of mainly young men continue to arrive on Britain’s beaches in small boats.

More than 200,000 people have reportedly entered the country illegally by small boat during the past eight years. That figure is greater than the number of Allied troops who landed in Normandy on D-Day. It is also claimed that more than one million people are now living illegally in Britain.

Critics say people who enter the country illegally are often placed in hotels paid for by British taxpayers. They may also receive meals, healthcare and other support while their immigration cases are being considered. In some cases, activities such as visits to cinemas, safari parks and other attractions have reportedly been provided.

Around 130,000 small-boat migrants arrived while the Conservatives were in government. Reform UK says Labour is now continuing the same failed approach. The party argues that politicians from both main parties have repeatedly placed the rights of foreign nationals ahead of the safety and interests of British citizens.

There is also growing anger about cases in which foreign criminals have avoided deportation. Human rights lawyers often challenge attempts to remove them from the country, and some migrants convicted of serious crimes, including rape, have reportedly been allowed to remain in Britain.

One case highlighted in this debate is the killing of 27-year-old Rhiannon White. She had finished working at the Park Inn Hotel and was speaking to a friend on the phone while waiting at a railway station.

She never boarded her train. Deng Majek, a Sudanese migrant who had arrived in Britain by small boat three months earlier, attacked her with a screwdriver and stabbed her 23 times. CCTV later showed him laughing and dancing in the car park of the hotel where he was staying. Rhiannon died in hospital three days after the attack.

Many British people now feel that their patience has run out. They do not want the country’s borders left open while communities are placed at risk. They are also angry about reports of British veterans losing accommodation while people who entered the country illegally are being housed at taxpayers’ expense.

Reform UK describes the situation as a national security emergency. It says Conservative and Labour governments have responded with weakness instead of protecting the country. The party argues that government agencies have effectively become a free transport service, bringing migrants to Britain after criminal gangs helped them cross the English Channel.

Reform UK says it would introduce a plan called Operation Fortress to stop the crossings completely. It describes the proposal as the biggest military operation in the English Channel since the Second World War.

Under a Reform government, Nigel Farage would order the Royal Navy to prevent unauthorised boats from reaching the British coast. Reform says the plan has the support of several senior former members of the Armed Forces.

The party would create an Integrated Surveillance Command, bringing military and intelligence surveillance teams together. Its aim would be to make the English Channel one of the most closely watched sea borders in the world.

Any boat attempting to cross illegally would be intercepted by the British Armed Forces and returned to France. Reform believes that if migrants know they will not be allowed to settle in Britain, they will stop paying people-smuggling gangs. Without customers, the party argues, the illegal boat crossings would eventually end.

Reform says its policy would be carried out even if the French government objected. Anyone leaving France in an attempt to enter Britain illegally would be returned to France. The party says this would be a firm government policy and not something to be negotiated later.

Its preferred option would be to take the migrants to a French port and hand them over safely and respectfully to the French authorities. However, if France refused to accept them at its ports, Reform says the Royal Marines would return them safely to the French shore from which they had departed.

According to the party, there would be no third option in which the boats were brought to Dover. Reform says that approach has already failed under both Conservative and Labour governments and has allowed the crisis to grow.

The party argues that France would be wrong to stop the Royal Marines from returning migrants safely. It claims that forcing the boats back out to sea would put lives at risk and says no French president would seriously choose that option.

Supporters of the proposal point to Australia’s response to illegal boat migration. When Australia used its military to turn boats back, illegal crossings reportedly fell to zero within a short time.

They say the Australian operation did more than protect the country’s borders—it also prevented deaths at sea. Around 1,200 migrants reportedly died while attempting the journey between 2007 and 2013. After the military operation began, the number of deaths fell sharply.

More than 170 migrants have reportedly died while trying to cross the English Channel to Britain. Reform UK argues that stopping the boats from making the dangerous journey could protect both Britain’s borders and the lives of migrants.

Conservative and Labour politicians may argue that the plan is impossible or too difficult to carry out. However, Reform says former Royal Navy commanders helped to design it and believe it can work.

Reform UK says this is how it would stop the small boats permanently, bring illegal Channel crossings to an end and put the safety and interests of British citizens first.