Border Force investigate after empty boat is spotted off Dover coast
Empty boat and lifejackets are spotted floating off the Dover coast less than a week after 34 migrants were caught trying to cross Channel from France
- A small boat was spotted just after 7am on Sunday at St Margaret’s Bay in Kent
- A number of lifejackets were also found eight miles away on Shakespeare Beach
- It comes after 34 migrants were picked up off the Kent coast on Monday
A Border Force vessel has been launched after an empty boat was spotted floating off the Dover coast.
The small rigid inflatable boat was seen bobbing in the water just after 7am on Sunday at St Margaret’s Bay, around 2.5 miles from the Port of Dover in east Kent.
A number of lifejackets were also found near the Shakespeare Beach in Dover, around eight miles away. It is not yet known if they are linked.
The small rigid inflatable boat was seen bobbing in the water just after 7am on Sunday at St Margaret’s Bay, around 2.5 miles from the Port of Dover in east Kent
A Border Force vessel has been launched after an empty boat was spotted floating off the Dover coast
Four RNLI lifeboats and a Coastguard helicopter were launched to investigate.
It comes after 34 migrants were picked up off the Kent coast on Monday after being found on one boat.
One witness said he saw at least one child, a boy who looked about six years old and was accompanied by a woman.
Hundreds of migrants, mostly Iranian, have made perilous trips across the Channel in recent months.
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More than 300 migrants have now crossed the Channel to arrive in Britain since the beginning of November.
A Border Force vessel and RNLI lifeboats (pictured) have been launched after an empty boat was spotted floating off the Dover coast
In December, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said the dramatic spike in migrants arriving on beaches in Kent was a ‘major incident’.
An image from the Societe Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer (SNSM) shows British rescuers helping some 30 migrants make their way from France across the English Channel on Monday
A women and a child are wrapped in orange blankets and helped by Border Force officials last week
On Christmas Day alone, 40 people in five boats arrived at beaches near Dover, and a further 39 arrived over one weekend in January.
A Home Office spokesman told Sky News today: ‘Border Force is currently dealing with an ongoing small boat incident off the Kent coast.
‘Further details will be provided once the situation has been resolved.’
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