The British authorities have been asked by the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (KMar) for information about the empty migrant boats that washed up on Dutch beaches last week. The KMAR wants clarity about the marking, the background of intercepted refugees and a possible link with ongoing investigations into human smuggling via the North Sea.
Robert van Kapel of the KMar informs NH Nieuws, following the news that last week at least five empty dinghies have been found in Dutch waters, two of which are in North Holland. In any case, there were still personal belongings of those on board in one layer.
The Marechaussee monitors the border traffic of people and fights cross-border crime, such as the illegal transport of people to England: people smuggling.
Busy
“There are ongoing studies into this. We have been particularly busy in recent years. Smugglers are all inventing ways to get migrants to England. Last year we also found a few empty boats like now in the autumn. We suspect that this is due to the wind direction and they drift here. But it is remarkable. We therefore want to know whether these boats fit in an ongoing investigation into smugglers,” says Van Kapel.
And for that, the British authorities have been contacted, who intercept most of the boats, mark them with a code and release them at sea. The KMAR also wants clarity about that specific code.
Yesterday, the Dutch coastguard told NH Nieuws that because of the sprayed-on marking on the empty dinghy, the Royal Dutch Rescue Company (KNRM) can immediately see at sea that it is a boat on which refugees have been intercepted by the British or French and therefore cannot be sent to them. have to look for drowning people.
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Only now it appears that the Coast Guard, the KNRM and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee do not know exactly what that code means. “Presumably it is an indication of the location where the migrants were found. But we have now also asked for information about this. We know in any case that it has nothing to do with the number of migrants who were on the boat.”
NH Nieuws has also written to the Royal National Lifeboat Institute for a response, but has not yet received an answer.
Personal stuff
On one of the washed up boats, the one between Bergen and Egmond, there were still all kinds of personal items and possibly also indications about the people on board. For example, there was a necklace with the Afghan flag, Albanian money and medication bought in Iran.
Van Kapel of the KMAR says that the British have also been asked for some more information about the migrants. Today we visited beach finder Marco, who emptied the boat. That story will be online tonight.