JAKARTA - Reform UK, British’ far-right populist party, announced plans on February 23 to create a deportation agency modeled on the United States' Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as part of what the party called an emergency response to an immigration "invasion."

Zia Yusuf, Reform's shadow Home Secretary and the son of Pakistani immigrants, made the announcement to reporters at Dover, the southern English port that serves as the main arrival point for migrants crossing the Channel from France. 

"Our country is being invaded. Make no mistake, as Home Secretary I will end and indeed reverse this invasion," Yusuf told reporters.

Yusuf promised to introduce an "Illegal Migration Mass Deportation Act" to legally compel the government to deport illegal migrants and block judges from intervening. The proposed UK Deportation Command would target up to 288,000 removals annually, a figure Reform said would require a dedicated enforcement structure comparable to ICE.

Between 2021 and the end of 2024, Indian was the most common single nationality of people migrating to the UK, with around 850,000 Indian nationals arriving during that period, making up nearly a quarter of all non-EU arrivals. 

But India is not on Reform's proposed visa ban list. Pakistan is. Yusuf said a Reform government would apply visa bans on nations such as Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan for refusing to take back their illegal migrants.

Pakistani nationals claiming asylum in the UK rose 79% in 2024 to 10,542, making them the top nationality, ahead of Afghanistan with 8,508 and Iran with 8,099. Home Office data also confirmed 41,472 migrants landed in the UK by small boat in 2025, a 13% increase on the previous year and the second highest annual total since records began in 2018. 

Reform currently leads in opinion polls ahead of an election due no later than August 2029. The governing Labour party said it had already removed nearly 60,000 people with no legal right to remain since winning the 2024 election and called the Reform plans divisive.