Brexit leader Nigel Farage has warned that due to the failures of the Conservative government to control migration, Britain is at risk of an attack similar to the one seen in France this week, in which a Syrian asylum seeker stabbed four children in a park.
On Thursday, a so far unnamed asylum seeker from Syria launched into a horrifying attack at a playground in the sleepy lakeside town of Annecy in the French Alps. The 31-year-old man seemed to specifically target young children in the attack, stabbing two French two-year-old cousins — a boy and a girl — a 22-month-old Dutch girl, and a three-year old British girl on holiday with her parents.
The four children remain in hospital, however, officials have said that thankfully they are no longer believed to be in life threatening situations.
According to prosecutors, the Syrian man had applied for Asylum in France last October after travelling through Italy and Switzerland, however, he was denied the request just days before the attack given that he had already received asylum status in Sweden in 2013. On Saturday, prosecutors levied preliminary charges of attempted murder against the man.
Commenting on the attack, Brexit’s Nigel Farage wrote in The Express newspaper: “We are at risk here in Britain too, and our government has done nothing yet to protect us. This latest, horrifying attack is yet another warning that our national security is under threat.”
“This man was not on a threat or ‘watch’ list, which makes me believe that we are all at an even greater risk than we realise,” Mr Farage added.
The Brexit leader took aim at the failures of successive Conservative governments to stem the tide of illegal migration, with tens of thousands entering the UK illegally per year via small boats in the English Channel.
Farage noted that many of the mostly “young, fighting-age males” who cross the Channel intentionally dispose of their passports and other identifying documents prior to landing on British shores in order to stymy attempts to deport them back to their homelands.
“We literally have no idea who they are, and already the security services have found suspected terrorists among their number,” Farage wrote.
The ardent Brexiteer also criticised the open borders policies of the European Union and its freedom of movement Schengen Area which enabled the attacker to legally enter France, saying: “Put simply, the Schengen area is a passport for criminals.”
In the wake of the attack, French populist leader Marine Le Pen also lambasted Paris for ceding control of immigration policies to Brussels and called for a national referendum to reclaim control of the nation’s borders.
“The French are calling for firm decisions on immigration,” Le Pen said. “We need a referendum on immigration, it’s the only way to regain control. I do not accept that we are no longer decision makers of who enters and who stays on our soil.”
“Who gave our leaders a mandate to divest ourselves of our sovereignty in terms of controlling immigration and protecting our borders?” she added. “The European Union cannot attribute to itself powers which must depend on national governments.”