Ex-soldier: Paying Taliban to take migrants ‘vile perversion of Britishness’

A former Army officer has branded any attempt to pay the Taliban to take people deported from the UK “a vile perversion of what it is to be British”.

His comments came after Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage raised the possibility of his party negotiating a returns agreement with the Afghan government if his party came to power – amid plans proposed last week for “mass deportations” to address migration.

Reform deputy leader Richard Tice has since appeared to double down on the idea, arguing in recent days that there was a “justification” for the move as it was “in the interests of the British people”.

Mr Tice added: “Sometimes you do deals with people you may not want to go down the pub with.”

But ex-British Army officer Robert Gallimore, who served in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2011, said such a move would see people sent “back to their torturers” and likened it to being the opposite of saving children from the Nazis in the Second World War.

Mr Gallimore spoke through the Freedom from Torture human rights charity as it erected a billboard outside Reform UK’s party conference in Birmingham on Friday.

Ahead of the event, he said interpreters and Afghan soldiers he had fought alongside had been killed by the Taliban, adding: “If that’s the fate of those who stayed behind, what do you think the fate would be of those who fled and then are returned?”

He said: “Having fought alongside the Afghan National Army I have seen first-hand the devastation that the Taliban has inflicted on ordinary people.

“We fought against their cruelty and repression for many years. This is not an abstract enemy, but a brutal force responsible for unspeakable human suffering.

“Farage’s plans to send people back to their torturers would be like the Kindertransport in reverse: a vile perversion of what it is to be British.”

He said the UK’s long-standing principle of opposing and condemning torture “must not be compromised” and is the “clearest moral line” which must not be crossed.

Any deal with the Taliban “risks undermining the very values that British soldiers have defended in conflict”, he added.

Following Reform’s policy proposals, the Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said they would “potentially” strike a deal with the Taliban to return Afghan Channel migrants, although he later said such a deal would be “very expensive” and have “very significant” human rights consequences, adding that his party’s previous proposal while in government of deporting people to Rwanda had been “a better way of doing that”.

Labour has focused its criticism on the practicality of the proposals, with Downing Street refusing to rule out seeking return agreements with autocratic regimes.

In the 12 months to June 2025, Afghans made up 15% of small boat arrivals – the most common nationality arriving by that method ahead of Eritreans, Iranians and Syrians.

The UK has not recognised the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan since the group seized Kabul in 2021 and re-established a regime based on an extreme interpretation of Islamic law.

But the Government does pursue a policy of “limited and pragmatic” engagement with Taliban officials through the Qatar-based UK Mission to Afghanistan when it is deemed to be in the national interest.

Mr Gallimore said: “As someone who has witnessed the Taliban’s inhumanity up close, I urgently call upon all political parties to reject out of hand any dirty deals with repressive regimes that could result in people being tortured and that betray our fundamental British values.”

Sonya Sceats, chief executive at Freedom from Torture, said: “It is shocking to hear any British politician proposing to send survivors back into the arms of torturers, in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

“No wonder the Taliban is celebrating. This isn’t who we are as a country. The British public can see this policy for what it is, a shameless attempt to scapegoat refugees to win power and roll back rights that keep by us all safe
from abuse. We won’t fall for it.”