Reform UK plan to return asylum seekers using navy ‘dangerous in practice’

Published 5 August 2026 · europe

Nigel Farage’s party says ‘Operation Fortress’ would stop migrants ‘invading’, but experts say the proposal is unrealistic. A plan put forward by Britain’s right-wing Reform

Nigel Farage’s party says ‘Operation Fortress’ would stop migrants ‘invading’, but experts say the proposal is unrealistic. A plan put forward by Britain’s right-wing Reform UK party to deploy the navy to intercept and return asylum seekers arriving by boat has triggered a dispute with France. Reform leader Nigel Farage, who is under political pressure at home over a series of financial scandals and faces a by-election in just more than a week, characterised the mission dubbed “Operation Fortress” not as pushbacks but as “rescue and return”. He argued that, per its humanitarian nature, the measure would not breach international law, as stated by the French Ministry of the Interior. Pointing to the arrival of thousands of migrants in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta, Farage on Monday pledged, if elected, to stop a similar “invasion” by launching the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War II. He said the measure would ensure that people are “immediately returned to their point of departure”. Responding to France, Reform said: “We will always stand up for British interests and protect our people, whether [President] Emmanuel Macron likes it or not.” Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s spokesperson for home affairs, claimed France “sent us 200,000 illegal migrants, including murderers and terrorists”, and that marines would return them anyway to the French coast. But groups and analysts say the proposal is unrealistic and could lead to a diplomatic dispute. The Centre for Military Justice said international maritime laws do not “permit a State’s armed forces to go into the territorial waters of another state to seize and return people to that state.

Indeed, in most cases, to do so may well amount to a flagrant breach of these conventions.” Unilateral action on Britain’s part “would have a major diplomatic effect, prompting France to suspend existing cooperation, such as intelligence sharing and beach patrols in Northern France”, Mihnea Cuibus, senior researcher at the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, told Al Jazeera. “It is also possible that France would attempt to repel British ships in the Channel to prevent further returns.” Implementing the plan would therefore not be “as straightforward as simply ordering the deployment of the Royal Navy into French territory”, Cuibus said, but would require a bilateral deal that France looks unlikely to acquiesce to. ‘Waste of military resources’ Sarah Singer, professor of refugee law at the University of London, described the plan as a “complete waste of military resources”. As France has made its opposition clear, attempting to return people would have “huge diplomatic repercussions between the UK and its nearest neighbours”, with potential consequences affecting issues of mutual interest like trade and intelligence. While returning asylum seekers could be read as an “act of aggression” by France, it would also run counter to international law, said Singer. “Summary expulsions are contrary to UK and European law, which requires those seeking protection to have their cases individually assessed to determine if they can safely be removed,” the lecturer told Al Jazeera. The same strategy was touted in 2022 under the Conservative government of Boris Johnson and “abandoned as the gimmick that it is”, she said.