Insurgent party sets out plans to prosecute civil servants who knowingly grant asylum to foreign sex offenders.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)
Civil servants who have knowingly let foreign sex offenders into Britain would be prosecuted under a Reform UK government. Nigel Farage‘s party has pledged to create a new criminal offence of “dishonestly determining an asylum claim”, punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment.
Under the policy, civil servants who knowingly grant asylum to foreign sex offenders would face prosecution and sanctions including dismissal and being stripped of their civil service pension. Mr Farage said: “Any civil servant who wilfully allows migrants to enter the UK when they know that they pose a risk will be held accountable for their actions.
“I will not allow the safety of our women and girls to be sacrificed on the altar of misguided liberalism.”
A police taskforce, supported by the National Crime Agency, would be set up under the proposals.
Reform’s head of policy Ziv Yusuf added: “In order to pretend that they are dealing with the asylum backlog, consecutive Labour and Conservative governments have been shamefully granting asylum to dangerous foreign sex offenders, in violation of the law.
“Today we are announcing that a Reform UK government will create a taskforce to go through all these decisions and ensure civil servants who knowingly granted sex offenders asylum are held to account. That means termination for gross misconduct, potentially losing their pensions and prosecution.
“Reform will prioritise the safety of women and girls over the rights of foreign sex offenders and immediately deport all those who have been unlawfully granted refugee status.”
Labour announced in April that foreign sex offenders would be barred from gaining asylum in the UK under a new law.
A Government spokesman said: “Civil servants do vital work securing UK borders and processing returns so that foreign national offenders are removed from our streets.
“Since the Government came into power, we have removed nearly 50,000 people with no right to be on British soil and asylum-related returns are up 27 per cent compared to the previous year.
“We will not allow foreign criminals and illegal migrants to exploit our laws. We are reforming human rights laws and replacing the broken appeals system so we can scale up deportations.”
