The British media establishment has largely ignored the spike in boat migrants illegally crossing the English Channel, despite fears that they will import more cases of the Chinese coronavirus into the UK, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage lamented.

Over the weekend, Britain’s Border Force brought ashore an additional 35 boat migrants, bringing the total number of people that are recorded to have successfully entered the country illegally since the lockdown was introduced to 521.

“They are coming, of course, from camps in northern France, where we know this infection exists. There were last week in Dover, two people in one of the dinghies, who distinctly displayed symptoms of COVID-19,” Mr Farage said on LBC Radio on Sunday.

“Yet when the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, chaired the daily Downing Street press conference, not a single journalist asked a question about it… and we know that hardly anyone who comes in illegally into the country via this route ever gets sent back,” Farage continued.

“No one seems to care. I’m furious about it… is it just me? Doesn’t this matter?” Farage questioned.

On Monday, in an article for The Telegraph, Mr Farage wrote: “I can quite understand the Conservative and Labour parties ignoring illegal immigration as an issue. They are far too concerned with wanting to appear nice and virtuous. But our media outlets are ignoring a story about which I believe the public feels very strongly.”

“I am beginning to wonder whether some people’s Covid-19 vigilance stops at the point that the term ‘illegal immigration’ is mentioned,” he added.

Of the 521 migrants that have reached British shores since the beginning of the coronavirus lockdown, the majority arrived in April, with over 400 migrants illegally entering the country since the beginning of the month.

This means that April will be a record month for illegal crossings of the Channel, eclipsing the previous record of 336 in August of last year, according to the Daily Mail.

The spike in illegal migration is believed to stem from fears of coronavirus outbreaks within the camps at Calais and Dunkirk, in which migrants live in unsanitary conditions and reside within close quarters of one another.

In 2019, 1,890 migrants were recorded to have successfully reached British shores, yet just 125 of those migrants were deported back to Europe. Migrants that enter the country illegally can claim asylum, in line with European Union regulations under which the UK is still bound until the end of the Brexit transition period.

“People crossing the Channel to enter the UK have come from a safe country – usually France – and so there is no reason why they need to make this trip in order to claim asylum. Those fleeing persecution should stay in the first safe country they enter,” a Border Force spokesman said.

Despite fears that migrants could be carrying the virus, the government has not given any signals that it will stop bringing boat migrants ashore rather than deporting them back to France.

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