Brexit leader Nigel Farage has slammed the British government for using British taxpayers’ money to give generous benefits to asylum seekers, which he says are a pull for illegal mass migration.
Diplomatic tensions have been increasing between France and the United Kingdom after Britain saw its first record-breaking day of more than 1,000 migrants cross the English Channel from Europe in a 24-hour period, despite London recently signing off on the first instalment of a £54 million package to Paris to stop the boatfuls of illegals reaching British territory.
Speaking to Sky News Australia on Monday, Mr Farage said: “The French are not willing to cooperate at all, it politically suits President Macron to have a great big row with the British because, of course, he’s up for re-election next year, and we are the old enemy, and have been for the best part of a thousand years.
“And it kind of suits Boris Johnson, too — rather than admitting his own failure to deal with this problem — to blame the French.”
However, Mr Farage raised the issue of the government’s generous package of benefits for asylum seekers drawing migrants out of other safe countries like France to the UK.
“But it’s all a diversion, because the truth is, France is a safe country. But the French do not put illegal immigrants up in four-star hotels with fresh linen provided every few days.
“We do that. They’re the pull factors. We’re the idiots and I think the British public are sussing this out,” Farage said.
Mr Farage’s remarks follow stinging observations from France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin who said ahead of a crunch meeting with his British counterpart Priti Patel that migrants would not be so eager to cross the Channel if it wasn’t for Britain’s black economy of illegal employment, “which, in the UK, mostly works thanks to a reserve army, as Marx would say, of irregular workers who can be hired at low cost”.
According to the British government’s website, asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their application who have no money may be entitled to housing and cash, as well as free school for children aged under 18 and medical care, including free prescriptions for medicine, eye tests, help with paying for glasses, and dental care.
“You can ask for somewhere to live, a cash allowance or both as an asylum seeker,” the British government says, which can include accommodation ranging from in a hostel to a house and “cash support” of “£39.63 for each person in your household”, which can be drawn from a cash machine with a special debit card.
There is also a cash top-up for children under four, pregnant women, and a one-off “maternity payment” of £300 if the migrant’s baby is due in eight weeks or less or if the baby is under six weeks old.
Even failed asylum seekers are able to apply for “short term support” and will be given somewhere to live and be eligible for the same weekly allowance, and even possible access to the slightly-reduced maternity bonus of £250.
Investigating the start of the Channel migrant crisis last year, Nigel Farage had uncovered that not only were illegal aliens arriving from France being given free coach rides to four-star hotels across the country, but they were being given guided tours of Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium.
“I can imagine selfies, posts, and a message going back to their home countries, ‘Hey guys, I got across the Channel, look how good this is’,” Mr Farage had said at the time.
The free room and board were apparently not good enough for all of Britain’s new arrivals, however.
Migrant activists and asylum seekers at a Glasgow hotel that became the scene of a stabbing spree by a Sudanese migrant claimed that the deceased attacker had been “very hungry”, suggested that the food provided for them by the British taxpayer “wasn’t culturally appropriate”, and that migrants at the hotel had complained about “the quality of the food” and “limited WiFi”.
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