There are so many empty migrant boats floating in the Dutch part of the North Sea that the coastguard is raising the alarm. Since July 2021, 155 have been reported and rescue teams sometimes turn out for nothing. “We have to wait until someone is really in need and we can’t get there in time,” said Coast Guard Chief of Operations Edwin van der Pol to NH News.
Symbols of ships and aircraft on and over the North Sea flash on two large screens. The Coast Guard Center on the defense grounds in Den Helder is the only one and the heart of the major waters of the Netherlands, with dispatchers from the police, customs, NVWA and the Coast Guard itself.
“This is a kind of control room, as you also have on land. We receive all reports from a very large area. The North Sea alone is one and a half times the size of the Netherlands.”
Edwin van der Pol is Chief of Operations and Deputy Director of the Coast Guard. His people were recently alerted to it ferry accident at Terschellingthe rudderless mega freighter Julietta D near IJmuiden, but also a man overboard on the Markermeer.
“People are not playing with people’s lives. Everyone is doing everything they can to save people and animals. But you see: we are doing this with a not-so-big club. storm with reports from the north and south. Then it is very hectic here.”
“There’s someone in it for the same money”
Since last summer, the Coast Guard received 155 reports about a new phenomenon, according to figures requested by NH Nieuws: floating rubber boats, of which it is not always immediately clear whether there is still someone in it.
In October, the most reports were received in one month: 27. Do you remember, early last month in Egmond aan Zee? Below you can read the communication between the Coastguard and the skipper of the KNRM Egmond that evening. Text continues below
October 6, 7:17 p.m
KNRM: Do you know of a lost dinghy? It floats at about 500 meters
Coast Guard (KW): Nothing known here. What often occurs are those migrant boats.
KNRM: It looks like that.
KW: The English fish them out and let them float.
KNRM: I think it’s such a boat. I think he washes up like that. Shall I go and see?
KW: If you want, do you have crew there?
KNRM: I will go that way with a coastal rescue vehicle, because if I go that way with the boat, it will already be on the side.
KW: Is that so fast?
KNRM: Yes. Well, let’s take a look at the boat.
KW: Do that, because for the same money there is still something in it.
KRNM: We’re going to look. Do you want to raise an alarm?
KW: I will.
On the 6th of October in Egmond, on behalf of the Coast Guard, a KNRM boat with crew members will go to sea for a possible search and rescue operation. Once arrived there appears to be no one in or near the boat. The people were already picked up two days earlier, about four hundred kilometers southwest of Den Helder.
More and more refugees are trying to find the shortest stretch of Channel between France and England there to cross. achieved this year a record 40,000 people hit the British coast.
They then board motorized dinghies. A dangerous trip, in which a very busy shipping route has to be crossed and even though dozens of people have died (you can read why people do this in a box below).
The coastguards of the countries are legally obliged to rescue people in emergency situations, in other words on such a rubber boat. They are disembarked and taken to the mainland. According to the Dutch Coast Guard, the empty boats are then left behind due to lack of space – sometimes with engine and equipment.
Due to the wind and current, they end up in Dutch waters. “We found quite a few at one point. Especially here,” says Van der Pol. On a large map on the wall, he points out a piece of sea in front of Zeeland.
Owned men, skippers, beachgoers or patrolling aircraft alert the Coast Guard if they see such a boat. “When a boat was found, we started a search and rescue every time in the beginning. That could involve one or more lifeboats, a helicopter or an airplane. If this happens about ten times, you will start thinking. deployment is risky and costs money.”
Other people in need
A lifeboat and helicopter both have about five crew members. And then you also have the people who take care of take-off, communication, the Coastal Assistance, the police, customs or the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee who are called up and the beach finder who salvages the boat on behalf of the municipality.
But in addition to the financial aspect, there is another risk associated with such a ‘false’ report, says Van der Pol. “When we are busy somewhere, we are not or only to a limited extent available for other people in need. For example, we only have two helicopters and one plane available. So you run a significant risk: we may be late elsewhere.”
“You also send your rescuers out to sea in the dark or in bad weather conditions. You only want that in a real emergency”
Finally, the safety of his own people. “It is a very large and also dangerous area. And you send your rescuers out to sea in the dark or in bad weather conditions. You only want that in a real emergency.”
It is not recorded how often a search and rescue procedure has been started for empty migrant boats, but according to Van der Pol it concerns ‘several times’. The English and French now try, at the insistence of the Netherlands, to salvage the boats or – failing that – to mark them. For example, the boat in Egmond was numbered.
In practice, these measures alone do not always succeed or the code is sometimes only visible after a ‘rescue operation’. “We are also looking at other scenarios,” says the Coast Guard’s Chief of Operations. “Leak stabbing or shooting from the rubber boats, for example.”
Only, he says, can the boat float under water, get caught in a propeller of a sailing yacht, or end up in a cooling water intake that causes a boat to become rudderless. “Then you have the next incident. And that is apart from the environmental damage.”
The Ministry of Defense (the British department responsible for monitoring English migrant boats) responds that it is ‘their job to prevent uncontrolled small boat landings in the UK and to ensure that migrant boats are identified, intercepted safely and that persons on board are properly entered into the Home Office immigration system’.
‘Solution must come’
They state that after a migrant boat has been intercepted and the people disembarked, the empty vehicle will be taken to the coastal town of Dover where possible. They do not go into further operational details. The marking on the boat that washed up in Egmond is not recognized by the ministry in an official letter as their working method.
The solution is not there yet, but it should be there, says Van der Pol. “It is a very complex story that needs to be solved at the front. Our people never want to be responsible for someone’s death. So we always stay on edge.”
Why do refugees want to come to England?
“There are large networks of migrants in England. It is therefore possible that family members or acquaintances already live there and they can help them on their way”, says Professor of Citizenship and Migration Law and MEP Tineke Strik. “There is also the idea that migrants without residence papers in England can find work relatively easily or disappear into illegality.”
In addition, they often already speak a word of English and often live in appalling conditions in the French refugee camps. Desperation grows. “They take the risk of danger for granted.”
Strik is shocked by the number of empty migrant boats reported on the Dutch sea. “What a sinister idea. Even with those personal items that are simply given to the waves. It resembles what happens in the Mediterranean Sea, near Italy and Greece. There the bottom is littered with wooden boats and the remains of rubber boats. I ask I also wonder if those people are all saved? Or are there also ships whose people have capsized?”
‘Brexit causes sharper conflict’
She believes that the country that is obliged to save the people should also take care of salvaging the boats. “To avoid danger.” According to her, such a refugee crisis has been going on for years on the northern borders of Europe.
“France and England are fighting each other over who should take care of these people. Since Brexit, England has not participated in the distribution of asylum seekers, so the people who arrive there cannot be transferred back to France. The conflict is becoming more acute as a result and now the Netherlands is also involved. Perhaps this boat problem can lead to the Netherlands posing as a mediator. People must be driven and the sea must be safe.”
Accountability
The reported number of migrant boats has only been tracked separately and per month by the Coast Guard since July 2021. Their addition to the figures is that it cannot be ruled out that some boats have been counted twice.
There is no record of how often a Search and Rescue (SAR) has been initiated for empty migrant boats. The 2021 annual report shows that 2339 alerts have been received by the Coastguard Center. Of these, 385 were false.
The KNRM does not keep track of how often they have been pulled out – on behalf of the Coast Guard – for search and rescue operations, which later turned out to be an empty migrant boat. A spokesperson reports that this has been estimated ‘about nine times’.
The transcript of the communication between the Coastguard and the KNRM of 6 October was supplied by the Coastguard and textually shortened by the author of this article for readability.
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