Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has announced plans to send British prisoners to El Salvador if he becomes prime minister, mirroring a controversial arrangement between US President Donald Trump and his Salvadoran counterpart Nayib Bukele that has drawn criticism from human rights groups.

Speaking at a press conference on July 21, Farage said the policy would cost approximately GBP1.25bn over a five-year parliamentary term, forming part of broader crime proposals estimated at GBP17.4bn.

"Of course we're prepared to take British prisoners from other parts of the world," Farage told reporters. "That's fair, right and proper."

The proposal follows Trump's deportation deal with El Salvador, which has seen over 200 migrants - mostly Venezuelans and some Salvadorans, allegedly members of criminal gang groups such as the Tren de Aragua - sent to the Central American nation's Centro de Confinamiento para el Terrorismo (Cecot) mega-prison since March.

The Trump administration's arrangement, supported by a $6mn cooperation agreement, has bypassed judicial review by invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. Critics have described the deportations as "forced disappearances," with detainees held incommunicado and denied legal representation.

Human rights organisations including Human Rights First and Human Rights Watch have condemned the use of Cecot, a maximum-security facility designed for 40,000 inmates that has been criticised for alleged torture, overcrowding, and absence of due process.

The British right-wing politician, who spearheaded the push for Brexit in 2016, also proposed freeing up 10,000 prison places by deporting foreign criminals through bilateral agreements, claiming he was "in conversation with Edi Rama," the Albanian prime minister.

In 2023, Rama signed a deal with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to host up to 36,000 asylum seekers awaiting deportation in Italian-run detention centres in Albania. However, the project has stalled, as Italy’s Supreme Court deemed it potentially unconstitutional and it has faced legal challenges at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Labour chairwoman Ellie Reeves criticised the proposals, stating: "Reform is more interested in headline-chasing than serious policy-making in the interests of the British people."

El Salvador's transformation under Bukele from one of the world's most dangerous countries to among Latin America's safest has come at significant cost to civil liberties. The country remains under a state of emergency, with Amnesty International warning of "worrying risk of further erosion of human rights."

Despite ongoing concerns, the US State Department recently reclassified El Salvador as safer for American travellers than several European nations, citing decreased gang activity whilst omitting reference to the consolidation of unchecked executive power.

The broader implications of such deportation policies have raised concerns among legal experts about the erosion of due process protections and the subordination of human rights to political expediency.