‘Criminals, sex offenders, terrorists’ – Farage says UK must quit ECHR to stop boat migrants and deport offenders
Nigel Farage has vowed to detain and deport small boat arrivals if he becomes Prime Minister as he warns of unvetted arrivals on British shores.
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The Reform UK leader was responding to an LBC listener about holding the French accountable for failing to stop illegal Channel crossings. Mr Farage said Britain must take a hardline approach, similar to Australia’s zero-tolerance stance.
Farage claimed “criminals, sex offenders and terrorists” are now arriving via small boats, adding: “Someone that’s crossed in a boat is 25 times more likely to go to prison than a British national.”
He cited recent arrests of three men who allegedly planned to bomb the Israeli embassy, saying they had entered the UK via the Channel.
“We must deport them back to Afghanistan, back to Iran, back to Iraq,” Farage said. “We can’t have people coming in and simply disappearing into the system.”
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The conversation comes in the week the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in a single year passed 20,000 in record time.
Some 440 people made the journey in eight boats on Tuesday, bringing the total for 2025 so far to 20,422, Home Office figures confirmed.
This is up 50% on this point last year (13,574) and 79% higher than at this stage in 2023 (11,433), according to PA news agency analysis.
Blaming the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for blocking deterrent policies like the Rwanda scheme, Farage insisted that Britain must leave the ECHR altogether to regain control of its borders.
“The idea of Rwanda was good,” he said. “But the ECHR prevented us from doing it.”
Asked about a comment he previously made to The Sunday Times, in which he linked rising sexual assaults to migrant hotel areas, Farage doubled down and issued a stark warning.
“You wait for one of two things,” he said. “Either a democratic change in Britain… or societies that become so divided and so angry that one doesn’t really want to think about the consequences.”