DOVER: Reform UK on Monday set out an immigration enforcement plan that includes creating a new “Deportation Command” and imposing visa issuance suspensions on nationals of certain countries, including Pakistan, if those governments do not cooperate in accepting people the UK seeks to remove. Party leader Nigel Farage and home affairs policy chief Zia Yusuf presented the package at an event in Dover, describing it as a response to irregular migration and what they said were gaps in the UK’s ability to enforce immigration decisions.
Reform said the proposed Deportation Command would be modeled on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and would be tasked with locating and removing people who have no legal right to remain in Britain. The party said it would introduce legislation it calls an “Illegal Migration Mass Deportation Act” intended to mandate deportations after immigration decisions and to limit legal routes that, in Reform’s description, can delay removals once administrative and court processes are completed.
As part of the plan, Reform said it would apply “visa freezes,” described as the immediate suspension of visa issuance, to countries it says refuse to take back deportees. In reporting on the proposal, Reform has named Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan among countries that could face the measure. Reform said the restriction is linked to returns cooperation and would be used in cases where, in its account, a government does not accept nationals the UK is seeking to deport.
Returns cooperation and visa pressure
Reform’s stated rationale is that removals often require cooperation from the destination country, including confirming identity and nationality and issuing or recognizing the travel documentation needed for a return. In countries like Pakistan, those steps are delayed or refused, deportations can be slowed or blocked even after a person has been found to have no right to remain, or guilty of violent crimes. Reform said the visa measure is intended to create pressure on governments to complete return processes and accept nationals the UK is seeking to remove, including people who have overstayed visas or committed crimes.
The visa leverage concept has also been raised in UK government policy. In September 2025, the Home Office said the UK could cut the number of visas granted to countries that “delay or refuse” returns of individuals with no right to remain in Britain, describing visa access as a tool to encourage faster cooperation. The UK has also pursued returns arrangements aimed at improving removals, including agreements covering foreign criminals and immigration offenders with Pakistan and an agreement with Bangladesh covering failed asylum seekers, foreign national offenders and overstayers.
Wider enforcement proposals
Alongside the visa element, Reform said it would stop benefit payments to foreign nationals and expand enforcement capacity to increase removals. Yusuf described current immigration levels as a national security emergency and said the party’s plan is designed to deliver a sharp rise in deportations, including by targeting people who are in the country unlawfully, or have committed crimes. Reform has said the Deportation Command would be built to support sustained removals, with stated annual capacity of up to 288,000 deportations.
The proposals were unveiled amid continued political focus in Britain on irregular Channel crossings and the handling of asylum claims and removals. Reform’s plan sets out a tighter link between visa policy and returns cooperation, and frames the visa suspensions as a response to delays and refusals by some destination countries to accept nationals the UK is seeking to deport, including overstayers and convicted offenders. The party said the measures would be part of a broader shift toward enforcement-led immigration control. – By Content Syndication Services.