Netherlands coast guard rescues 38 people adrift in a rubber boat
Dozens of people adrift at sea in a rubber boat have been rescued off the coast of the southern Netherlands
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Dozens of people adrift at sea in a rubber boat were rescued early Saturday off the coast of the southern Netherlands, in one of the first such interceptions in the country.
The Marechaussee military police and Netherlands coast guard rescued the boat early in the morning and towed it to shore. It had no motor and was drifting off the coast of Zeeland province near the town of Breskens, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Amsterdam, Marechaussee spokesperson Doron Wallin said.
There were 38 people on the boat, including two who were detained on suspicion of people smuggling, Wallin told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. No one was wearing a life vest. It was not immediately clear where they came from or where they were heading.
Those on board were taken to dry land, checked for signs of hypothermia and then taken to another location while their nationalities and migration status are investigated.
“We don’t know where they came from — France, the Netherlands or Belgium — and we don’t know where the boat was heading,” Wallin said.
In recent years, tens of thousands of migrants have sought to cross the narrow sea dividing France from the United Kingdom, but it is very unusual for a boatload to be discovered off the Dutch coast.
Earlier this year, the U.K. and French governments signed a new multimillion-euro deal aimed at reducing the number of migrants crossing the English Channel, with increased police patrols and enhanced surveillance in northern France.
“These are things you usually see in France and Belgium. We rarely see it here in the Netherlands before today,” Wallin said.
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