The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) revealed that lifeboats had been deployed 290 times in 2022 to rescue migrants attempting to cross the English Channel. This is the primary time the charity has disclosed details about its involvement in migrant crossings. Despite criticism that the RNLI is working as a “taxi service” for migrants, the organisation has saved 108 lives in the Channel between France and the Kent coast. The RNLI’s lifeboats, manned by volunteer crews, were launched over 9,000 times across the UK and Ireland’s coastlines in 2022.
Migrant rescues in the Channel now account for 3% of the RNLI’s work. Crews are more and more encountering traumatic situations during these rescue missions. Simon Ling, the RNLI’s head of lifeboats, mentioned: “We’ve had infants thrown at our lifeboats, girls screaming, men screaming. Unheard of ’s a very chaotic state of affairs. Our crews are skilled how to manage that and tips on how to quickly get into rescue mode.”
BBC News reported that 1,100 small boats crossed the Channel last year, with lifeboats being known as to rescue approximately one in four of them. Some of these crossings resulted in fatalities, such because the incident in December when a ship capsized, claiming four lives.
Coastguard officers request help from the RNLI’s 238 lifeboat stations, with nine stations positioned alongside the Sussex and Kent coastlines, from Hastings to Whitstable, being probably the most concerned in migrant rescues. Former UKIP chief Nigel Farage has criticised the RNLI for acting as a “taxi service for unlawful immigration.” However, this criticism has led to a rise in donations.
The charity’s 2022 annual report exhibits a three.5% web improve in earnings, partly due to greater donations, though expenses also elevated. Some of the funds have been used to develop a model new device known as “sea stairs,” a floating platform that enables crews to rescue individuals from the water extra rapidly. Ling described the floating platform as a “game-changer,” stating that traditional rescue strategies took about one minute per person, while the sea stairs allowed 20 individuals to be rescued in 90 seconds..