Reform UK has proposed banning work, study, and temporary visas for citizens from 17 specific countries—primarily in the Caribbean and Africa—that have formally demanded reparations for the UK’s historical role in the slave trade. The policy will impact roughly 3.8 million past visa holders.

It targets countries that have engaged with the CARICOM Reparations Commission, the African Union, or UN-backed initiatives to seek compensation. The nations impacted include Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago Montserrat (British Overseas Territory). African Nations include Nigeria (Identified as most heavily impacted due to high visa volume), Ghana, Kenya. In Latin America, the countries impacted include Guyana, Suriname and Belize.

Zia Yusuf, the party’s home affairs spokesperson, told the Daily Telegraph that the call for reparations was “insulting”.

For four centuries, seven European countries, including the UK, enslaved and trafficked more than 15 million Africans across the Atlantic. Historians have linked wealth from enslavement to mass industrialisation in the west.

Last month, the UN voted to describe the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and called for reparations as “a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs”.

The landmark resolution was backed by the African Union and the Caribbean Community (Caricom). It had been proposed by Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, who said: “Let it be recorded that when history beckoned, we did what was right for the memory of millions who suffered the indignity of slavery.”

The UK and members of the EU abstained from the vote, while the US voted against the resolution, which was not legally binding.

Yusuf told the Telegraph: “A growing number of countries are demanding reparations from Britain. These countries ignore the fact that Britain made huge sacrifices to be the first major power to outlaw slavery and enforce this prohibition.”

He said the “bank is closed and the door is locked” for anyone who wanted to “use history as a weapon to drain our treasury”.

“The United Kingdom is not an ATM for ethnic grievances of the past, and we will no longer tolerate being ridiculed on the world stage,” he continued. “While countries like Jamaica, Nigeria and Ghana ramp up their demands for reparations, the Westminster establishment has rewarded them. Enough is enough.”

Reform UK has previously pledged to scrap international aid for countries demanding reparations

In 2023, a report on reparations for the transatlantic slave trade, written and compiled by Patrick Robinson, a former judge of the International Court of Justice, concluded the UK alone should pay $24tn (£18.8tn) as reparations for transatlantic slavery in 14 countries.

Last year the Caricom Reparations Commission (CRC), which was set up to progress the Caribbean’s pursuit of justice for centuries of enslavement and colonisation by European countries, addressed misleading press reports that suggested the commission’s aim was to “break the British Treasury” by demanding trillions of pounds.

Longstanding calls for reparations, including formal apologies, financial compensation and the return of stolen artefacts, have gained momentum in recent years.

The anti-immigration and populist party Reform UK, which has only eight national lawmakers but is topping opinion polls ahead of an election in Britain due by 2029,

This is primarily an edited article from The Guardian Newspaper