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Nineteen rescued from inflatable boat in Channel Nineteen people rescued from inflatable boat in Channel
(about 4 hours later)
Nineteen people have been rescued from the Channel after the inflatable boat they were in started taking on water. Nineteen people have been rescued from the Channel after the inflatable boat they were in started taking on water following what is believed to have been an attempt to cross from mainland Europe.
The UK Coastguard received a call for assistance just off the coast of Dymchurch in Kent, at 11.40pm on Saturday. Those on board, believed to be refugees, were picked up late on Saturday night and taken to the port of Dover, where they were being interviewed by immigration officials on Sunday.
A search and rescue helicopter was deployed as well as lifeboats from Dungeness and Littlestone, and coastguard rescue teams from Dungeness and Folkestone. The UK Coastguard said it received a call at 11.40pm on Saturday night to come to the assistance of a rigid-hulled inflatable boat which was taking on water off the coast of the village of Dymchurch in Kent.
The RHIB (rigid-hulled inflatable boat), with 19 people on board, was found at 2am and the matter was handed over to Border Force. A search and rescue helicopter was involved in the operation, as well as lifeboats from Dungeness and Littlestone, and coastguard rescue teams from Dungeness and Folkestone.
The matter was handed on to the Border Force after the inflatable was found at 2am, according to the coastguard.
Those on board made a distress call to their families in Calais, according to a BBC reporter in Kent. The families then alerted the French authorities.
Further details about the identities of those on board were not released. It follows another incident off the Kent coast in April when two men were rescued by lifeboat volunteers after they apparently rowed across the Channel from France in a 10ft rubber dinghy.
An incoming ferry spotted the men in the strait of Dover after the alarm was raised when one of them was able to use his mobile phone to ring 999 and tell police they were lost at sea.
A separate statement about Saturday night’s incident was released by Kent police, which said that it had been called at midnight following concerns about two boats off the coast of Dymchurch.
David Monk, the Conservative leader of Shepway district council, said he believed high levels of surveillance in the Channel would mean most boats making the crossing would be identified.
He added: “I do not think it’s a major problem at this time, I would have thought this was one of the most surveyed stretches of coast in the world because it is one of the busiest stretches of water in the world.