Moment 21 migrants dive off their YACHT into Britain after sailing across the Channel and into East Sussex harbour and running aground in low tide

  • The group capsized the 20ft vessel when they rushed to one side and tipped it
  • They got stuck near bank in Rye Harbour in East Sussex at around 1pm Saturday
  • Footage, shared with MailOnline, showed people swimming to a dinghy
  • An eyewitness explained to MailOnline how the events unfolded

Twenty-one migrants today dived off a yacht into a river after its sailor ran it aground during low tide on Saturday.

The group capsized the 20ft vessel when they rushed to one side to see why they had stopped moving, toppling it over in the water.

They got stuck near the bank in Rye Harbour in East Sussex at around 1pm after sailing the boat across the English Channel and up the river.

Footage, shared with MailOnline, showed people desperately swimming towards a nearby dinghy that was deployed from the yacht.

Some of the people were forced to leap into the water as the yacht slowly tipped over and capsized when too many grouped on one side.

At least one man could be seen swimming through the water with an orange life jacket towards the dingy.

It was not clear if the others had life jackets when they leapt from the vessel.

Footage taken later in the evening showed the boat after it had been re-floated by responders from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

The group capsized the 20ft vessel when they rushed to one side to see why they had stopped moving, toppling it over in the water

The group capsized the 20ft vessel when they rushed to one side to see why they had stopped moving, toppling it over in the water

They got stuck near the bank in Rye Harbour in East Sussex at around 1pm after sailing the boat across the English Channel and up the river. Some were forced to jump into the water

They got stuck near the bank in Rye Harbour in East Sussex at around 1pm after sailing the boat across the English Channel and up the river. Some were forced to jump into the water

The 20ft yacht, with a baby-blue coloured bow, was seen flying a Union Jack as it was pulled into the harbour by an RNLI vessel.

Speaking to MailOnline, a witness said the yacht was steered up the river by a single sailor, and that it was coming in quite late in the tide.

'He looked competent, he had the wet weather gear on, he had the sails down and he was motoring – all the right things you would do when you're coming up a river in a yacht,' the local sailor said.

However, the sailor appeared to lose control of the yacht and ran it aground on the river bank, he said. Rather than reversing fully back into the river, the man made the 'strange' decision to reverse out and sail straight into the bank a second time.

The eyewitness said that he believed the sailor was caught out by harsh conditions, including strong winds.

'He was caught out by the weather,' he said. 'He had it well planned. He must have left (France) yesterday afternoon which is when the weather dropped. 

When the boat ran ashore, the sailor 'then got a little dinghy out and signalled to someone from inside the yacht to get in it, and he rowed off quite competently to the bank,' the source said.

Once they reached the bank together, the man 'pointed back to the yacht to the other person who was left in the dinghy, and he ran off.'

Footage, shared with MailOnline, showed people desperately swimming towards a nearby dinghy that was deployed from the yacht

Footage, shared with MailOnline, showed people desperately swimming towards a nearby dinghy that was deployed from the yacht

The person left in the dingy was left to row back to the stranded yacht to rescue the others on-board. An eyewitness told the MailOnline they made it to shore and fled the scene

The person left in the dingy was left to row back to the stranded yacht to rescue the others on-board. An eyewitness told the MailOnline they made it to shore and fled the scene

The person left in the dingy was left to row back to the stranded yacht to rescue the others on-board.

'Someone else came out, and then another one and they were shouting and throwing ropes, and then one of them jumped in (the water) and then a load more came out and stood on the side and they were all shouting,' the source said.

'Then obviously as all the weight was on one side and it was aground, the yacht fell on its side and most of them went in the water.'

He told MailOnline that the eyewitnesses counted around 20 people in total.

Border Force later turned up to the village and told locals that they had arrested 16 people without IDs, suggesting around four are still on the run, the source said.

'Everyone disappeared when everyone got off and when border force got there two hours later they'd all gone,' he added.

'But then later on that day, they came back to look at the yacht again outside the lifeboat station tied up. They said the national crime agency was coming down in the morning because it's a boat of interest to them.' 

MailOnline contacted Border Force and the Home Office for comment.

A spokesperson confirmed the incident had been reported to officials on Saturday.

Speaking after the incident, Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration Tom Pursglove MP said: 'The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable. Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer and it risks lives. Rightly, the British public has had enough.' 

It was announced this week that up to 60 CCTV cameras paid for by UK taxpayers are to be installed along more than ten miles of French coast in a bid to stop migrants crossing the Channel.

They will cover more than ten miles of seafront on the lookout for people- smugglers driving migrants to the sea.

A dozen will line beaches at Sangatte, 14 in Wissant, seven in Ambleteuse and five in Audresselles. More sites are set to be agreed but UK authorities will not be able to access the images. 

Costs for the £170,000 ‘Terminus’ project will be covered by the Treaty of Sandhurst signed by the UK and France in 2018. 

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