LONDON: Britain's Nigel Farage, head of the anti-EU UK Independence Party, today linked Europe's refugee crisis to the attacks in Paris, saying that the problem risked getting worse.
"It's perfectly clear that (French President Francois) Hollande and (European Commission President Jean-Claude) Juncker have learnt nothing from the abominations last Friday," Farage told AFP.
"The European Commission themselves are saying they are expecting three million (migrants) over the next two years," he said, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the campaign for Britain to leave the EU.
"There are jihadists among them."
Farage rejected the notion that he was using Friday's series of coordinated attacks in Paris, in which 129 people were killed, for political gain.
"Clearly what happened is ghastly, we have to ask ourselves some big questions, we have a problem already, to my mind if we allow access to countless millions without any means or ability to check who they are, we are adding to a problem," he said.
"Thank goodness we are not in Schengen," he said, referring to the open borders agreement among most EU members, adding "at least we can check a boot in Dover to see whether there are Kalashnikov rifles in it".
UKIP, which advocates tight controls on immigration, received around four million votes in a general election in May but only has one lawmaker in parliament.