Police were called to Yarmouth Harbour last night (Thursday) when 3 men were found adrift at sea off the Isle of Wight in questionable circumstances, with concerns raised over whether they could be migrants crossing the Channel.
The individuals – for whom English is not their first language – were located in the pitch black in a RIB that was suffering from engine failure just south of The Needles.
Yarmouth Lifeboat was tasked to launch at the request of Solent Coastguard at around 21:10 and soon made best speed to the reported location of the casualty vessel.
The crew of Yarmouth Lifeboat took onboard the 3 men from the RIB and established a tow of the boat to Yarmouth.
Only once Coastguards from The Needles Coastguard Rescue Team were in place on the quayside, the lifeboat berthed and the 3 men were transferred ashore.
It’s understood that the sailors gave their details and explained that they had simply run out of fuel. An inspection of their boat was conducted and it was found to be in a state of good repair.
The 3 males were given safety advice and let on their way – with Police arriving just a few minutes later. Content that the 3 casualties were not in the country illegally, the Police stood down from the incident.
Hampshire Constabulary has confirmed to Island Echo that the individual’s details were checked and no offences were identified.
National newspapers report no migrants have arrived in the country in small boats for nearly 10 days.
The last migrants to arrive in Kent were a total of 263 across 7 small boats on 19th April. However, it’s not clear if weather conditions are deterring migrants or whether the Government’s threat of them being sent to Rwanda is having an impact.
It was back in December that Yarmouth RNLI recovered a migrant boat to the south west of the Isle of Wight – just hours after Bembridge RNLI completed the same off the east coast.
National newspapers report no migrants have arrived in the country in small boats for nearly 10 days.
…..
that is because they have probably all been arriving on RNLI taxi’s – whom I have stopped donating to, because they are facilitating the entry of illegals into this country.
How do you know this information?
Pathetic.
Why?
Let’s hope you never get stuck as sea. Perhaps you should stop paying tax and national insurance too.. sure that benefits immigration also
I would only be at sea with a valid ticket/passport/visa and as such would be following the rules – which is what these spongers should be doing.
life is a life, doesn’t matter who they are or where there have come from, if there in trurble and need help at sea the RNLI’s main objective is to save lives! Not a taxi! There just doing there job, Well done to all the VOLUNTEERS crews around the UK.
if illegals stopped in one of the many countries that they travelled through en route to the shores of france, then they wouldn’t be in the channel in the first place – they intentionally try to travel to the UK in a dinghy – we should not facilitate this by helping them. If they knew that they would be left to drift, then they wouldn’t bother in the first place.
Grammar Police… there? You mean they are or they’re surely
I don’t think Shirley was on the boat
Look at Ukraine. Her citizens have not deserted their country when Russia invaded. They’ve stayed to fight for their freedom. Pity these people from the middle east don’t do the same.
A terrible thing, trurble.
Are you drowning there m8.
They leave France under the escort of French border control until, in mid-channel, they are passed over to the care of UK Border Force of the RNLI, especially boat number 17-38. If you research the subject you can trace the movements on AIS.
What utter drivel, iowighter. The RNLI is not some sort of coastal police force!
Their remit is to save lives at sea, regardless of who is in danger. It’s a task they undertake exceptionally well, sometimes in the most horrendously dangerous conditions. So please don’t lay the blame at their door – the policing of boat arrivals is the job of other agencies.
And I SHALL be continuing to donate to the RNLI.
Most of these people are in perfectly seaworthy vessels. The RNLI are not saving their lives.
True; they are escorting them into Dover.
no nelson – it is people like you, with your hand wringing, let everyone in attitude, that has ensured that this country is overcrowded and suffering. we do not want your drivel here nelson, as barely any of the dinghies were in danger – the RNLI have been used as taxis – I won’t be funding these wokesters any more.
Dear oh dear, isle of wighter, you’re just ranting now!
You can’t possibly know what my attitude to immigration is (or anything else for that matter) so just stop your senseless attacks on the RNLI and go and find something useful to do.
Well said.
well said mate!
Trolls gotta troll.
Well said, turn the inflatables around and send them back to where they came from
RNLI TAXI’S, so you class them as taxi’s, have you thought how bad your comment is? These are people, they ARE illegal of that there is no doubt, they are not only endangering their own lives in these small boats but that of other people in ships/boats, including the RNLI, the RNLI do not choose who to save, they are volunteers who risk their own lives to save others regardless, what do you do? stop donating, because you see them as TAXI’S.
I sincerely hope that one day you do not find yourself in need of the RNLI and none are available due to lack of voluntary funding from such people as yourself.
I bet a bigot like you has never donated to the RNLI . If they get paged to a shout then the go , no choice , just get the job done , oh yeah , and voluntary!
No I have not donated either, if they keep helping illegals, who love our benefits, I never will.
I bet your 50p a year will be sorely missed.
I give a lot more than that to Animal charities, who are far more deserving.
Well said Bowy, I bet he doesn’t do a lot for his community, and has no respect for those that do.
Oh dear. What a sad and inhumane person you are. Seeing as the RNLI’s remit is to help people in peril or distress on the water and that is what they did, how can they not be supported? Your decision to become some kind of summary justice warrior with your hard-line bigotry and assumptions is quite possibly the bigger issue here. You don’t get to decide who gets pulled out of the water. The same applies with every other aspect of life. If for instance, I were to see someone say, like yourself in a dangerous or uncomfortable situatuon, I would step up and help a fellow human being. If it turns out that that fellow human was in fact a bigotted, opinionated A-hole then I would hope that my actions may have helped someone A, in need of help and B, help someone get a more balanced and sympathetic view of the rest of our society.
You don’t have to help but by not helping you also lose the right to criticise those that do.
Have a nice life. Be kind. It’s lonely at the bottom.
Very well said, Nay Sayer. Unfortunately, there are some lost souls, like isle of wighter, who have gone so far down the route of blind hate and self-centered opinionating that there is no hope of them ever being able to form a rational, balanced argument.
The RNLI has totally lost the plot and their funding/donations must have been hit badly by the decision to escort illegal aliens into our ports. What WAS a worthwhile cause to which I chose as a good destination for my donations has become an embarrassment to which I will NEVER donate again.
Sailors? English not their first language. What were these three blokes doing ‘bobbing’ around in the dark at gone 9pm?
Seems a bit dodgy to me.
Yes and police arrive after there sent on there way.ffs you cant make this up Oh just out for bit of sight seeing,
They’re. Their.
FFS, you can’t make this up.
VERY VERY SUSPICIOUS, are we afraid to ask more questions and conduct a proper investigation for fear of being labelled racist etc?
How were they found? Mayday call? Radar? You can just go missing out there and never be seen again.
Were they running without lights? And did we check if the boat was stolen??way too much remains unanswered other than they are free to go!
free to go…now let me think..ten years later … perhaps they were minding there own business…pd
Obviously a drug run !!!!!!!!
Three blokes in a fairly decent RIB. Far more likely to be drug runners than migrants, and, considering the police checked them out, far more likely to be nothing at all.
Migrant boats are cheap junk and are packed solid with people.
Never let the truth get in the way of a good headline, eh?
What an odd story. They’re picked up by the RNLI because of an engine failure (that’s fair enough) but the the RNLI ‘let them on their way’ and the police found nothing suspicious about 3 foreign men in a rubber dinghy at night drifting off the Needles?
Does that mean they all had documents on them proving who they were, which, let’s face it, would be odd if you were simply doing a bit of fishing or just fancied a boat ride.
I wonder what they were doing adrift at night in a rubber dinghy which wasn’t suspicious or illegal? I guess we’ll never know.
The RNLI are not the Police and can’t detain the people. If the police let them on their way, it’s nothing to do with the RNLI,who should not be the victim of negative comments for doing what they are there to do.
This is a subject that is something you should wish you are never found in. These are human beings you are talking about, you should be ashamed of yourself.
As NONE of these immigrants arrive on our shores with a home yet most ALL will end up in one then don’t complain when our island and county is built to ruination.
Imagine how many homes will be built to house their often large families.
Being’nice’ comes at one heck of a price that you and your children will pay in far more than monetary terms.
A lot of fearmongering from people living in a County less affected by immigration than almost any other in the land.
No practical reason to be against immigration, just unadulterated hate.
I can think of reasons to be against immigration.
Try looking at the bigger picture … more housing more handouts to folk who have never contributed here – while our pensions and benefits worked towards for years are pushed back beyond retirement age to fund it.
What about our homeless – no home no job no home the biscuits circle these poor folk are on – don’t see the well heeled welcoming them into their homes … what a sad world we live in. Might just as well put out a blanket statement all welcome – but alas the whole world can’t live in the U.K. or can they ?????