Reform UK plans to deport foreign criminals to hellhole jails in El Salvador if Nigel Farage becomes Prime Minister.
Lee Anderson, the party’s chairman, is expected to travel to the Central American country within months for talks with President Nayib Bukele’s government.
Mr Farage has reportedly held initial discussions with Salvadoran officials about the possibility of renting places at the country’s prisons, which are known worldwide for their tough, spartan regimes.
Unveiling Reform’s prisons policy last night, the party’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf vowed to ‘change the law so that those who commit serious crimes such as murder, manslaughter, rape and serious violence serve their full sentences’.
He said: ‘Unbelievably, there are over 10,000 foreign nationals in British jails.
‘We will deport all foreign nationals from our jails. If their home countries won’t take them back we will send them to serve their sentences in countries like El Salvador and Kosovo.
‘We will use the space created to ensure that serious criminals stay where they belong. Behind bars.’
Nigel Farage has already held discussions with Salvadoran officials about the possibility of renting places at the country’s jails, which are known for being tough
Inmates at El Salvador’s Counter-Terrorism Confinement Centre (Cecot) are crammed behind floor-to-ceiling bars with nothing to do
The plans echo a US policy in which Donald Trump struck an agreement with El Salvador to deport migrants from the United States.
The Sun reported Mr Farage will today pledge to create 12,000 new prison spaces through the construction of pop-up nightingale prisons.
Temporary nightingale hospitals and courts were introduced during the pandemic to provide additional space for treatment and hearings.
Mr Farage is also expected to promise an end to early release for dangerous offenders and reintroduce short sentences for shoplifters.
It comes as the Government has faced pressure over its early release scheme, which starts in October in a bid to tackle prison overcrowding.
Some 5,000 people are expected to be released early under sentencing changes, down from 6,000 after the exemptions announced as part of an urgent review of the scheme.
Under current plans, PC Andrew Harper’s killers remain eligible to be freed halfway through their 13-year sentences after they were convicted of manslaughter in 2020 following Mr Harper’s death in 2019.
More than 850,000 people have signed a petition calling for Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers to remain in jail, with a Government source saying the Prime Minister is prepared to ‘explore every option’ to block their early release.
El Salvador’s most famous prison is the Terrorism Confinement Centre (Cecot).
A cornerstone of Mr Bukele’s war on drug cartels, it houses thousands of shaven-headed inmates who sit in silence in windowless concrete cells where they are kept locked up for 23-and-a-half hours a day.
There are no family visits, no recreational spaces and no rehabilitation programmes at the jail
Good Morning Britain host Richard Madeley visited the prison earlier this year and described its regime.
‘They just sit on their bunks, day in day out, and the prison lights stay on 24/7, never dimmed. All will die in this prison. It’s a living death,’ he said.
The 57-acre facility was built to hold up to 40,000 prisoners and currently houses an estimated 15,000 inmates.
Many are suspected members of rival gangs that terrorised the country for decades, alongside convicted murderers and rapists.
Mr Madeley said: ‘Nothing, absolutely nothing, can prepare you for the sight of 3,000 shaven-headed men crammed behind floor-to-ceiling bars. No doors. No screening.
‘They sit there in permanently open view through the bars, on tiers of metal bunks four-high – no mattresses, just thin cotton sheets – staring out. It’s one hell of a sight’
President Bukele ordered the mega-prison to be built in March 2022 as part of his campaign against El Salvador’s gangs, and it opened a year later.
There are no workshops, libraries, opportunities to learn kitchen skills and no visitors.
Mr Madeley added: ‘All meals must be taken in their cells, inside which they spend 23-and-a-half hours every day, with just 30 minutes outside for brief, heavily guarded exercise.’
A Labour Party spokesman said: ‘Keeping the public safe is and always will be Labour’s first priority. The Government has already made clear we are working at pace to deport foreign criminals and we’re building more prison places to deliver justice for victims and keep criminals behind bars.
‘Reform have no serious answers to the Tory prisons crisis and would lead the system to collapse. This would result in a free-for-all for dangerous and violent offenders, including murderers and rapists.
‘Nigel Farage and Reform simply can’t be trusted to keep Britain safe.’
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