Operation Restoring Justice: Reform UK's mass-deportation plan

What's being proposed

Unveiled by Nigel Farage in August 2025, "Operation Restoring Justice" is Reform UK's plan to detain and deport all migrants in the UK illegally — a population the party puts at over one million — with a target of removing around 600,000 people over five years. An accompanying Illegal Migration (Mass Deportations) Bill would make removal the default. In April 2026 the party went further, saying it would also review every successful asylum grant of the past five years and deport up to a further ~400,000 people found to have entered illegally or overstayed.

How it would work

Legal reset: leave the European Convention on Human Rights, repeal the Human Rights Act, and disapply the Refugee Convention and other treaties for five years; make asylum claims by illegal entrants inadmissible and remove rights of appeal.
Detention: build Secure Immigration Removal Centres for up to 24,000 people within 18 months (capacity stood at roughly 2,200 in mid-2024), at an initial cost the party puts at £2.5 billion.
Enforcement: a new UK Deportation Command and an identification centre fusing data across the Home Office, NHS, HMRC, DVLA, banks and police, with bulk warrants and biometric capture.
Removals: up to five charter flights a day, with an RAF Voyager on standby; a six-month voluntary-return window offering a cash incentive (around £2,500) to self-deport.
Fallbacks: if return to home countries fails, deportation to "safe third countries" or British Overseas Territories.

The claimed saving. Reform estimates the programme would save £7 billion over the first parliament and around £42 billion over ten years. See how it fits the party's wider sums in Reform: the money.

The case for and against

The party argues

It would enforce existing law and restore control of the borders.
Swift, certain removal would deter dangerous small-boat crossings.
It would cut the multi-billion-pound annual cost of asylum accommodation and support.
Reform frames it as a matter of public safety and fairness to citizens.

Critics argue

It abandons the principle of non-refoulement — not returning people to places they may face harm — and would face major legal and parliamentary challenges, especially in the Lords.
The scale is unprecedented: enforced returns currently run at around 9,000 a year, far below the numbers envisaged.
Independent analysts say it is "impossible to cost with precision", and any saving depends heavily on deterrence working.
Mass detention raises serious risks around healthcare, child protection, ill-treatment and self-harm, and depends on diplomatic deals with reluctant governments.

This is among the most contested proposals on this site. We've set out what the party proposes, its stated rationale and savings claim, and the main objections raised by legal scholars and independent analysts. The figures are Reform's own and are disputed.

Sources & further reading

Reform UK — Operation Restoring Justice policy.
COMPAS, University of Oxford — analysis of the plan's scale and feasibility.
LSE British Politics & Policy — "detect, detain, deport" assessed.

General information based on reported proposals and independent analysis; figures are contested and may change. Not legal advice.