Reform UK has pledged to prosecute civil servants who knowingly grant asylum to sex offenders, unveiling plans to create a new criminal offence aimed at asylum decision-makers.
The party said it would introduce an offence of “dishonestly determining an asylum claim”, punishable by up to two years in prison. Under the proposal, civil servants found guilty could also face dismissal for gross misconduct and the loss of their civil service pensions.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the policy was intended to hold officials personally accountable for asylum decisions that place public safety at risk.
“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,” Farage said.
“I will not allow the safety of our women and girls to be sacrificed on the altar of misguided liberalism.”
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s policy chief, accused successive Labour and Conservative governments of allowing dangerous foreign offenders to receive asylum. He said a Reform-led government would establish a task force to examine historic asylum decisions.
“Today we are announcing that a Reform UK government will create a task force to go through all these decisions and ensure civil servants who knowingly granted sex offenders asylum are held to account,” he said.
“That means termination for gross misconduct, potentially losing their pensions and prosecution.”
The announcement comes as Reform UK continues to outline plans for sweeping changes to the civil service. The party has already pledged to cut the number of civil servants by 68,500 if elected, while redirecting funding towards performance-based bonuses instead of what it describes as “over-generous” pension contributions.
A government spokesperson defended current border and asylum enforcement, saying civil servants play a critical role in removing foreign national offenders from the UK.
“Civil servants do vital work securing UK borders and processing returns so that foreign national offenders are removed from our streets,” the spokesperson said.
“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% 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.”
Under international and UK law, countries are permitted to refuse asylum to individuals convicted of a “particularly serious crime”, defined in the UK as an offence carrying a prison sentence of 12 months or more.
The government has recently tightened those rules further, blocking anyone with a UK or overseas conviction that would place them on the sex offenders register from being granted refugee status.
