Reform ‘financing brutality with UK taxpayer money’ with pledge to deport foreign criminals to El Salvador

Reform UK has been accused of trying to “finance brutality with British taxpayers’ money” after pledging to deport all foreign nationals from Britain’s prisons to countries including El Salvador.

A government led by Nigel Farage has vowed to “deport all” foreign nationals in British jails, either to their home countries or from third countries such as El Salvador or Kosovo.

The party, which also said it would build pop-up “Nightingale” prisons, said the extra space would ensure those who commit serious crimes like murder, rape and serious violence serve their full sentences rather than being released early.

But the policy has come under fire from charities, who have warned those deported could face torture or degrading treatment in countries with poor human rights records.

Amnesty International, which has documented beatings, torture, enforced disappearances and deaths in custody in El Salvador, said Reform is “financing brutality with British taxpayers’ money”.

“Reform is proposing to contract into serious human rights abuses in El Salvador to enable the transfer of people convicted in the UK into an extremely overcrowded and abusive prison system overseas – financing brutality with British taxpayers’ money,” Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Director, said.

“Amnesty has documented mass arbitrary detention, beatings, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, denial of medical care and deaths in custody in El Salvador. People have been cut off from their families and effectively disappeared into detention, while relatives have been left searching prisons, courts and even morgues for answers.”

He said the proposal is a “further extension of a wider politics that has moved dangerously far from any sense of what is practical, legal or constitutes basic human decency”, and added: “We have already seen with the Rwanda scheme how policies once considered unthinkable can be pushed dangerously far when politicians choose headlines and hostility over real solutions to human needs.

“Too many politicians seem incapable of any real leadership – whether at home or internationally – preferring to agitate hate, violence and inhumanity that makes all of us less safe. This latest proposal from Reform provides a stark example of that.”

Nick Beales, from Refugee and Migrant Justice, added that the proposal shows Mr Farage is “seeking to undermine universal prohibitions on torture”.

“Nigel Farage has already made clear that he is happy deporting people to countries where they will face torture, a clear breach of international law,” he added.

“It is therefore no surprise to see Reform’s latest proposal is outsourcing the UK prison system to countries with appalling human rights records. This is the latest policy announcement that demonstrates how Reform are seeking to undermine universal prohibitions on torture.

“Andy Burnham, Kemi Badenoch and all other party leaders should forcefully reject these plans and reaffirm that these policies are not only unlawful but also profoundly un-British.”

Zoe Bantleman, JUSTICE’s Legal Director, warned prisoners sent to El Salvador may face “torture and inhuman and degrading treatment”.

“This has all the hallmarks of the failed Rwanda plan, which swallowed up £700m and came to nothing.

““The government recently passed a law to send foreign nationals home before they serve time here. Yet, at huge public cost, Farage wants to send people to El Salvador.”

Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust said the proposal “risks presenting a complex challenge as a quick fix”.

While the government should make use of deportation and prisoner transfer arrangements where lawful and appropriate, proposals to send people overseas on a large scale raise significant practical, legal and ethical questions,” she said.

“The government needs measures that can deliver real reductions in the prison population now, not proposals that risk generating more headlines than prison places.”

Mr Farage said that Reform UK chairman Lee Anderson will visit El Salvador with former prison officer Vanessa Frake within months, as part of talks to see whether the country could house foreign national offenders.

“This is really quite straightforward,” he told a press conference on Monday. “We send people back to their country of origin…And if they refuse, we then send foreign national failures off to third parties.

“Kosovo is perhaps one good example currently being used by Sweden, and we are organising a trip to El Salvador.”

The plans echo a US policy in which Donald Trump struck an agreement with El Salvador to deport migrants from the United States, after which some told the BBC they had been beaten by guards as soon as they arrived and were reportedly told: “Welcome to hell. Welcome to the cemetery of living men. The only way you leave here is dead.”

Reform’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf said that the prison conditions “won’t be a summer camp”, but said “it won’t be cruel, and it won’t be unreasonable,” without giving details on how the party would ensure this.

The party also pledged on Monday to create 12,000 new prison spaces through the construction of pop-up “Nightingale” prisons.

It follows the temporary Nightingale hospitals and courts that were introduced during the pandemic to provide additional space for treatment and hearings.

Mr Yusuf said: “We will rapidly build capacity. We will take advantage of new prefabricated models and build 12,000 prison places in the form of Nightingale prisons on Ministry of Defence land, and the army will be called in to assist.”

But Ms Bantleman said the party should focus on instead boosting probation resources and cutting reoffending rather than the “flawed proposals”.

Prisons need to be safe and secure; ‘pop-up’ prisons are no exception,” she said. “Everyone deserves basic decency in their living conditions, especially if we expect them to be rehabilitated.”

“Rather than these flawed proposals, we should focus on what works: give probation the resources it needs to cut reoffending and ease pressure on prisons.”

Asked about the security of such facilities, Mr Yusuf said: “This is going to be a lower category of prisons. These aren’t going to be rapists…They’re going to be people who have been convicted of things like shoplifting, for example. But absolutely, they will be secure.”

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, two of 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 Pc 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 telling The Daily Telegraph on Friday the Prime Minister is prepared to “explore every option” to block their early release.

A Labour Party spokesperson 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.”