Farage: I Witnessed Illegal Boat Migrants ‘Bailing Water’ in the English Channel

MAIDSTONE, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 26: Leader of the Brexit Party Nigel Farage speaks during t
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Nigel Farage has claimed that he witnessed a group of migrants “bailing water” from a boat while he was out in the English Channel to film a report on the growing migrant crisis.

On Wednesday, the Brexit Party leader said that he “was out mid-Channel early this morning and we found a small inflatable in trouble with over 20 onboard. They were bailing water.”

Mr Farage said that footage of the incident will be published later, warning that ‘the invasion will continue unless we act”.

On Tuesday, Farage shared a video on social media which appeared to show a group of illegal boat migrants landing on the shore at Pett Level, which Mr Farage claimed has become “a favoured landing beach for migrants”.

In April, Farage went to the British coastal town to report on the increased numbers of migrants landing in Pett Level, speaking to local fishermen who claimed to have witnessed dozens of migrants landing undetected by the British Border Force.

Mr Farage’s film drew the ire of the mainstream media, in particular from Sunday Times journalist Sarah Baxter, who pronounced that the issue of illegal immigration had “gone right off the boil” during coronavirus.

Mr Farage claimed vindication over the mainstream media, who attacked him for travelling to migrant landing hotspots to report on the growing crisis, saying that the video of the migrants landing at Pett Level “is proof that the sneering media were wrong to attack me for my film”.

On Sunday, Breitbart London reported that during the national lockdown, some 1,064 illegal migrants are known to have been brought ashore after trying to cross the English Channel from France, with 90 migrants claiming to hail from Algeria, Libya, Eritrea, Sudan, and Senegal landing in small rubber boats over the weekend.

The increased numbers of illegal migrants landing at Pett Level spurred local Conservative Party MP Sally-Ann Hart to write to Home Secretary Priti Patel to relay the “deep unease and concern” amongst her constituents.

“For several months now it has become clear that the chosen destination for many of these crossings is to land the boats along the coastline at Pett Level, which sits between Hastings and Rye in my constituency.

“This continued arrival of migrant boats is causing deep unease and concern to local residents, especially in the current situation with the Covid-19 pandemic,” the Hastings and Rye MP wrote.

Hart said that while there may be genuine asylum seekers amongst the waves of migrants, she said that the crossings are “clearly” being used by some as a form of economic migration, demanding that the government mount a “robust” response to deter such crossings.

In response to the letter to the home secretary, a local pro-migrant group, The Refugee Buddy Project, said that Hastings, whose name is synonymous with the famed 1066 battle that heralded the colonisation of England by a foreign power, “has a long-standing and well-respected reputation welcoming people seeking refuge” and that Hart’s concerns were unjustified.

The group also called for an end to the detention of migrants when they are brought ashore, which they claim is “inhumane at the best of times” and said that those seeking asylum in the UK were justified because it is “so unsafe” in Northern France — despite the fact that France is a first-world country.

Follow Kurt on Twitter at @KurtZindulka

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