Coastguards pick up dinghy ’migrants’
SIX suspected migrants have been intercepted by Border Force officials as they tried to cross the Channel in a dinghy.
The group was discovered off the coast of Kent shortly before sunrise yesterday – and they are now being interviewed.
The red dinghy the men were allegedly using was towed back to the port of Dover.
Empty plastic drinks bottles and a foot pump could be seen abandoned inside it.
Coastguards had been alerted at around 5.40am by another vessel and scrambled the cutter HMC Valiant, which then picked up the migrants. A Border Force spokesman said: “Six men were recovered from the boat.”
Earlier this year, the National Crime Agency revealed migrants trying to reach the UK were paying smugglers up to £13,500 for their journey. Some of those intent on coming to Britain are quoted fivefigure sums to make the trip by air.
Brits Mark Stribling, 35, and ex-judo champion Robert Stilwell, 33, were jailed last month for more than four years each after trying to smuggle in 18 Albanians.
They were intercepted off the coast of Dymchurch in Kent. Each migrant had been charged £5,100.