A Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) volunteer is said to have accused Border Force staff of “not doing their job” during a row in which the charity refused a Coastguard offer to rescue a migrant boat. ask. The incident comes days after a mass drowning in the Channel region’s deadliest disaster in more than 30 years.
The Coastguard was told that RNLI crews would only launch if “there were people in the water” after being asked to fill gaps in Border Force coverage, according to internal documents seen by The Guardian . free investigation, It reveals tensions between agencies involved in rescuing the boat in the Strait of Dover.
Newly obtained Coastguard logs of the incident in the early hours of November 20, 2021 show that the boat with 25 people on board remained at sea for around three hours after the RNLI refused two requests to come to the rescue on behalf of Border Force. -The duty vessel was apparently busy assisting other vessels.
The news raised further questions about the government’s reliance on the charity to rescue boats.A former RNLI crew member previously warned Volunteers under ‘unsustainable’ pressure.
The British Coast Guard is a British government-funded agency primarily responsible for maritime search and rescue (SAR), but it does not have any rescue vessels of its own. Its staff are most commonly tasked with salvaging small boats for Border Force and, less commonly, the RNLI.
A document shows a heated exchange between coastguard staff and volunteers at Ramsgate Lifeboat Station, who said the incident should be handled by Border Force, before another crew member’s shift started three hours later. Troops eventually rescued the boat and all its passengers.
The volunteer allegedly told the Coast Guard: “This is [Border Force] Not doing their job well. We are volunteers.
“All their crews are paid to go out; [sic] Getting ridiculous… If there was an emergency and someone fell overboard, we would surface, but at the moment I know by the sound of your voice that it’s not an emergency. “
Coastguard policy is to assume that all migrant vessels in UK waters are in “imminent danger” and require “immediate assistance”.
An RNLI spokesman said the refusal was “based on an assessment of a variety of factors, including determining the need for rescue and the level of distress”.
But an independent maritime search and rescue expert, who requested anonymity, said the refusal was “completely contrary to the basic principles of maritime search and rescue”. [rescue] and human morality”.
Critics say the revelations illustrate why an independent inquiry due just days later into the deaths of at least 27 people in the same waters must be able to “force all parties to provide evidence”. The investigation currently lacks legal authority.
Steve Smith, chief executive of refugee charity Care4Calais, said the latest findings revealed “the tension and confusion at the heart of the UK’s rescue capabilities at the time” and the question the government needed to answer was whether it was lacking investment in search and rescue. and a serious refugee problem. Dependence on RNLI volunteers can be “life-threatening”.
A report by the government’s maritime accident investigation agency The Marine Accident Investigation Unit investigating a mass drowning in November 2021 found that the Coast Guard sent only one vessel – the Border Force cutter HMC Valiant – to the stricken dinghy, which became stranded in the middle of the night . The victim could die from cold water shock within minutes, the report said.
That night, Border Force speedboats rescued 98 people on three other boats, but not the dinghy carrying the 27 victims.
The report notes that unlike the RNLI’s vessels, Border Force vessels are not designed for search and rescue operations, although they are the UK’s “key asset” in dealing with vulnerable migrant boats. There is no suggestion that the RNLI rejected calls on the night of the tragedy.
An RNLI spokesman said November 2021 had been “extremely busy” and the demand on its volunteer staff was “unprecedented”.
“Despite this, both before and after the events in question, our volunteers continue to respond to their pagers, get up in the middle of the night, quit their jobs, and leave their families to help others because they believe in what we believe in,” they said: “Our core purpose is to save lives at sea.” They added that the RNLI was “extremely proud” of its relationship with its Channel search and rescue partners.
The spokesman said the RNLI was not tasked with responding to the fatal incident on November 24.
Maritime and Coastguard Agency, which oversees the coastguard, said it would be “inappropriate to comment” while the investigation is ongoing.
The Department for Transport, which funds the coastguard, declined to comment on the resources available for search and rescue in the English Channel.
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