Reform UK has declared its intention to pay El Salvador to rent spaces in its notoriously hellish prisons for the UK’s prisoners.
The announcement marks the latest in a series of blatant human rights violations masquerading as political policy from the far-right party. And, of course, it just so happens to be a carbon copy of a Trump policy, to boot.
Likewise, it forms part of Reform’s broader plan to massively ramp up already overinflated levels of imprisonment in the UK. This will also include a pledge to build “nightingale prisons” to incarcerate a further 12,000 inmates.
‘No serious answers’
On9 August, Zia Yusuf — Home Affairs spokesperson for Reform — stated that his party would:
change the law so that those who commit serious crimes like murder, manslaughter, rape and serious violence serve their full sentences.
This is a clear jab at Labour’s current early-release scheme to ease overcrowding in UK prisons. From October, some prisoners will be eligible for early release after completing half of their sentences. This is markedly less than the previous three-quarters requirement.
Unbelievably, there are over 10,000 foreign nationals in British jails.
We will deport all foreign nationals from our jails. If their home countries won’t take them back we will send them to serve their sentences in countries like El Salvador and Kosovo.
We will use the space created to ensure that serious criminals stay where they belong. Behind bars.
The Sun broke the story that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is currently in talks with the El Salvadoran government regarding the possibility of renting prison spaces. Lee Anderson, Reform’s chairman, will reportedly lead a delegation to the country itself to continue the discussions.
Never to be outdone on performative racism, a Labour spokesperson stated that:
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
Notorious human rights abuses
Prisons in El Salvador are notorious for human rights abuses, even when compared to the standards of the carceral system worldwide. Last year, watchdog organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) declared that these abuses included:
cases of torture, ill-treatment, incommunicado detention, severe violations of due process and inhumane conditions, such as lack of access to adequate healthcare and food.
In the UK government’s own travel advice, it acknowledges that El Salvadoran prison facilities are known for “mistreatment and human rights violations”. It states that these can and do result in death. Further, it also questions the UK’s ability to gain consular access to prisoners held in El Salvador.
Human Rights Watch also detailed the foul conditions which have been reported in El Salvador’s prisons. These included cells so dangerously overcrowded that detainees had to sleep “on the floor or standing”, cruel and humiliating punishments, and regular beatings with batons.
Some prisoners reported being forced to use a hole in the cell in place of a toilet. The filthy conditions mean that tuberculosis, fungal infections, scabies, severe malnutrition and chronic digestive issues are rampant. An estimated 350 people died in the prisons between 2022 and 2025 alone.
Trump speaks, Reform’s lips move
In 2022, El Salvador’s government declared a ‘State of Exception’, suspending the right to due process. That suspension remains in place.
Between that time and 2025, the government arrested some 1.4% of its own population – roughly 85,000 individuals. Though the country has capacity for 70,000 inmates, HRW estimated that it held some 109,000 as of last year.
However, the US has further compounded that dangerous overcrowding. Back in 2025, Trump struck a deal to deport individuals – many of them Venezuelan – his administration deemed illegal migrants to CECOT, an El Salvadoran mega-prison facility.
The BBC reported that CECOT director Belarmino García greeted detainees with the words:
Welcome to hell. Welcome to the cemetery of living men. The only way you leave here is dead.
Cruelty is the point for Reform UK
Of course, the fact that Trump’s deportations lead to massive human rights abuses has done nothing to deter Reform UK from following his lead.
Likewise, the Canary has frequently reported that Farage is desperately trying to emulate the US fascist-in-chief – and particularly his murderous ICE border regime.
So, to clarify, Reform UK is actively planning to pay to send “foreign nationals” to El-Salvador, a prison system synonymous with ‘hell on earth‘.
The far-right party knows that these prisoners will inevitably suffer abuse and heinous mistreatment. At best, it doesn’t care; at worse, that degradation is the point of this scheme.
If only there was a word for a legal system which metes out human rights violations according to race or ethnicity.
Featured image via the Canary
By Grace
From Canary via This RSS Feed.