Farage: Illegal Boat Migrant ‘Scandal’ Is ‘Bigger Than Anyone Realises’

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage speaks at an event to introduce their Prospective Parliam
BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has warned that the illegal boat migrant “scandal” is “bigger than anyone realises”, claiming many migrants arriving in the south-east of England under cover of the night are never accounted for.

The Brexiteer politician has been warning in recent weeks of the dangers of illegal migrants entering the UK in boats crossing the English Channel bringing more cases of Chinese coronavirus into the country.

While a scant few media headlines have revealed dozens of illegals being intercepted off the coast of Dover, Kent, by UK Border Force and taken into custody, Mr Farage warned that there is a “scandal” happening in another part of the south-east of England, where organised smuggling may be ushering in even more migrants who may never be reported to authorities, adding to the at-least one million illegal aliens already in Britain.

Speaking from Pett Level in East Sussex, Mr Farage described it as the “favoured beach for migrants to come” because of the shallow seas, sandy beach, and the slipway (a ramp near the shore on which boats can be moved to and from the water).

“I think what’s happening is, boats and dinghies are coming in here, under the cover of darkness, and they’re able not just to unload the crew but to get the boats off on trailers, as well.”

Walking the route smugglers and illegal aliens would take, he pointed beyond the slipway to the road.

“We’re getting to the high end where they’re not just getting people out, they’re actually getting their boats back, as well,” Mr Farage said in the report posted to social media on Tuesday.

“We do see some, where the border force tow people in,” he said, alluding to interceptions such as those at Dover, where on Monday, immigration picked up 47 Middle Eastern — and overwhelming male — migrants in four boats. “There are other people landing above and beyond the official figures where the people are being smuggled away,” he said.

“This scandal, I think, is far bigger than anyone realises. [According to] the official figures, since we’ve been in lockdown, 550 people have come into the country. Not one, to my knowledge, has been returned [to France] and [home secretary] Priti Patel needs to get tough,” Mr Farage added.

Visiting nearby Hastings on the same day, one local told Mr Farage that he had seen “loads of immigrant boats coming in” with no Border Force in sight, saying that the most illegals he saw in one vessel being 29 people.

This week, Mr Farage condemned the mainstream media for refusing to cover the massive increase in illegal landings. One of the locals corroborated the disregard, saying there was “no point” in reporting them to the press because “they get the story off you, and that’s it, basically. Not all of them get published.”

He added: “I am speaking to someone in Dover at the minute… and they said [the media] are not publishing them, because every day in Dover there’s a boat coming in.”

Another had remarked that in East Sussex, he had also heard of landings daily.

On Monday, Mr Farage wrote of the media’s hypocrisy in its coverage of coronavirus “vigilance”, saying: “I am beginning to wonder whether some people’s Covid-19 vigilance stops at the point that the term ‘illegal immigration’ is mentioned.”

“What is the government doing to stop the boats from crossing the English Channel?” Mr Farage then asked on Tuesday, adding in an indictment of the UK’s immigration services: “Border Force seems to be complicit.”

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