Channel migrants issue 'should be declared a national emergency', says Nigel Farage

Channel migrants issue 'should be declared a national emergency', says Nigel Farage
Georgia Pearce

By Georgia Pearce


Published: 25/06/2024

- 09:31

The arrival of migrants crossing the English Channel should be declared a national emergency, according to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Asked if stopping the crossings is an unattainable goal, he told GB News: “It's all obtainable. Brexit Britain can do what the hell it likes. That was the point of leaving.

“You need a government that's prepared to carry it out and sadly we lack the will to do so.

“It isn't just the £8 million a day for the hotels, I genuinely believe this should be declared a national security emergency.

“We have no idea who these young men are, no idea what they've been through, no idea what their intentions are, and that is just how serious this situation is.

“I think actually logically as a result of Brexit, we should leave the ECHR anyway. It’s becoming an increasingly activist court, making it very difficult to deport those that come to our country illegally, it even intervened recently in Switzerland and told the Swiss government it had to obey Net Zero rules.

“We should have no part of it whatsoever. Let's get that sovereignty back and once it's back, let's exercise it properly, because that's what the voters wanted more than once.”

He added: “The arguments that Rishi Sunak and James cleverly are putting up, they don't bear credibility in any way at all…

“It's over 128,000 people who have come, 90% of them young men, many coming from war zones from areas plagued by terrorism, gang crime, many coming with attitudes towards women that we would find completely unacceptable.

“I mean, how much worse could it be under labour that has been under him? My hunch is that he had to call the election early because he promised planes were going to Rwanda in July.

“He told us people were in detention already waiting to go. Do you know every single one of those people has been released on bail and at least half have absconded already?

“There were no [planes] going to Rwanda. We will not solve this problem until we leave the European Court of Human Rights.”

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