Nigel Farage slams the government's reported proposal to send migrants to Rwanda and says if Britain really wants to "take back control" a Brexit 2.0 is needed.
Boris Johnson is expected to unveil proposals to fly asylum seekers to the African country for processing and settlement later this week.
Speaking to Dan Wootton on GB News Mr Farage said he didn't think the plan was a "long-term solution" adding: "What we need is a Brexit 2.0.
"Brexit 2.0 would not only re-define the 1951 definition of what a refugee is because it’s hopelessly outdated in the modern world, but we have to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
Home Secretary Priti Patel speaking to the media outside the Ukrainian embassy in London. Picture date: Sunday March 6, 2022.
Yui Mok
"That is the only way to, and I quote you Boris Johnson, to 'take back our borders'."
Mr Farage continued: "Because we are a part of the European Commission for Human Rights, returning people to France is not possible.
"...They had to do something so, off-shore processing is the obvious thing.
"The upsides are, would you pay a trafficker 5,000 euros if you thought you would arrive in Dover to only be sent to Rwanda?"
"The downside is the cost per-person will be simply vast and it's only a matter of weeks or months before we get reports that people are being treated badly in camps in Rwanda, people being abused and exploited."
Mr Farage added: "Tony Abbott who was the Aussie prime minister was determined to deal with boatloads coming into Australia from Indonesia so started off with offshore processing.
"He was then met with global condemnation of the conditions in those camps."
Philip Trott, Senior Counsel at Vanessa Ganguin Immigration Law, also slammed the proposal.
Speaking to Nigel Farage on GB News, he said: "I don’t think this is going to stop people traffickers. In fact I think there will be a lot more infringement of liberties in Rwanda than infringement in the UK."
He condemned Ms Patel's previous handling of the UK's migrant crisis, referring to when the Home Secretary confiscated phones from migrants as they arrived in Dover.
Mr Trott said: “She’s certainly got a lot of egg on her face and I fear she’s going to have more egg on her face any minute now if this comes into law."
Britain is expected to pay Rwanda millions as part of the new deal.
Mr Trott claimed: “The cost of keeping a single migrant in a detention centre in Rwanda is in the region I think of £2 million per person, that can’t be right you can put people in the Ritz for less than that”.
Some 28,526 people crossed the English Channel last year, with the Union for Borders, Immigration and Customs warning that this number is expected to almost double in 2022.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “As set out in our new plan for immigration we are committed to working closely with a range of international partners as we continue to fix our broken asylum system.”
Dan Wootton and Nigel Farage
GB News