MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The European Union has forgotten what a "genuine" refugee is, which has led to the uncontrolled flow of undocumented migrants simply looking for jobs in the bloc, the leader of the UK Independent Party (UKIP) said Tuesday.

“The European Union has opened the door to an exodus of biblical proportions. The EU has sent a message that anybody who comes across the Mediterranean or comes through Turkey, once they have set foot in an EU country they will be accepted,” Nigel Farage told the BBC Radio 4’s Today program.

According to the UKIP leader, EU policy makers have forgotten what a “genuine” refugee is, as, historically, refugees were those persons, who were forced to flee their homelands because of war and religious persecution.

“The problem we have now is if you look at the definition of the EU’s asylum policy, it includes anybody who comes from a war-torn country and it even includes people leaving extreme poverty,” Farage said.

The European Union is currently grappling with a high influx of refugees, thousands of whom are fleeing conflict-torn countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

According to the EU border agency Frontex, over 340,000 refugees and migrants crossed its external borders into the European Union between January and July 2015, which is three times higher than during the same period in the previous year.