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Government using RNLI like a ‘taxi service’ during small boats crisis, former crewman says

More than 6,000 migrants have crossed the Channel this year despite the Government threatening to deport those arriving to Rwanda

RNLI volunteers are being used as a “taxi service” by the Government as they struggle to hold down their regular jobs amid a huge increase in emergency callouts, according to a former crewman.

Crews on the Kent coast have been called out up to four times a day amid a surge in crossings, according to David Wimble, who has left the RNLI as a crew member but remains in touch with volunteers covering the area.

RNLI data shows callouts for Dungeness Lifeboat Station spiralled from nine emergency calls in 2013 to almost 100 in 2021 as crossings from asylum seekers making the hazardous journey surged.

Now a councillor and local newspaper owner after serving with the RNLI at Littlestone until 2011,

Mr Wimble told i: “It’s very hard for businesses to employ crewmen. Some of the local businesses, obviously all the crew are volunteers, they don’t mind giving up their time for them to do lifeboat duties.

“But sometimes last year they were out four times in a days and they weren’t coming into work. It’s getting harder for the crews to justify giving up their time to act as a taxi service really for the Government.

“Dungeness sometimes would only have four or five jobs in a year. But some weeks last year it was out every single day. ”

It comes as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, criticised the Government’s controversial laws to stop small boat Channel crossings as “morally unacceptable” as peers debated the Illegal Migration Bill in the House of Lords.

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dungeness, Kent, from the RNLI Dungeness Lifeboat, following a small boat incident in the Channel. Picture date: Thursday April 27, 2023. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
A group of people migrants are brought in to Dungeness, Kent, from the RNLI Dungeness Lifeboat (Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)

RNLI vessels are tasked by HM Coastguard to rescue anyone who is at risk of sea, joining Border Force cutters patrolling the Channel for migrant small boats.

If the Government bill is passed into law, it would mean people who come to the UK in a way deemed illegal – for example in small boats – would be detained and removed, either to their home country or a third country such as Rwanda.

The most recent Home Office data shows more than 400 migrants in nine boats landed in Kent over the bank holiday weekend, bringing the total making the treacherous crossing this year to 6,691.

It comes after a record 45,728 people crossed in 2022, up more than 60 per cent on the previous year, suggesting the threat of being deported to Rwanda is failing as a deterrent.

Increased wear-and-tear on lifeboats due to the volume of call-outs meant they would require more frequent repairs, adding to the RNLI’s costs, Mr Wimble added, as he questioned whether the Government should provide funding to assist the charity, which relies on donations.

He said: “The lifeboats have a lifespan. So the boats are getting worn out and they cost a lot of money to replace.

“To launch one of the new lifeboats with the cost of fuel it’s thousands of pounds on top of the wear and tear and the fact that sometimes the boats have to be serviced more often than they would have been designed for.”

An RNLI lifeboat brings dozens of people ashore (Photo: Joe Duggan)
An RNLI lifeboat brings dozens of people ashore at Dungeness (Photo: Joe Duggan)

The last lifeboat at Dungeness was called out about 10 times a year before being replaced “whereas now sometimes they are doing 10 jobs in a week”, he added.

Some crew members at RNLI stations on the south coast had also been told last summer to avoid wearing their uniforms outside of their shifts, Mr Wimble added, with protesters haranguing volunteers bringing migrants into Dungeness on occasion.

“When I was on the lifeboat crew you were always proud to wear your uniform or if you were wearing a station sweatshirt,” he said.

“They’ve been told not to wear their crew shirts outside the lifeboat station because of the attacks that they will get on social media and ultra right-wing groups.”

During a stint working on a cruise ship off the Greek coast about eight years ago, he came face to face with the full horror of a catastrophe at sea involving migrants when the vessel he was working on was called to reports of a migrant boat in trouble off the Corfu coast.

He added: “There were about 44 people in the water of which 12 died. I went out on one of the RIBs (Rigid Inflatable Boats) that helped pull the bodies back in and some of them were small children.

“Having also worked on the River Thames, which was the world’s busiest lifeboat station, it was quite horrendous pulling small children out of the water.”

A spokesperson for the RNLI said: “The RNLI is independent of the government and funded by the generosity of the public.

“We will always help those in distress at sea, no matter who they are or where they come from. Our lifeboat crews around the UK and Ireland have been committed to carrying out this role with pride for nearly 200 years and that will not change.

“We are incredibly proud of our lifeboat crews who continue to respond, when tasked by HM Coastguard, to go to the aid of those in distress in the English Channel. We understand the demand this places on our volunteers, staff, their families and employers and we thank them for their understanding, support and continued effort to save lives.

“We know that the issue of small boats crossing the Channel is polarising but everyone at the RNLI remains focused on our core purpose of saving lives at sea.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Saving lives at sea is always our priority and we work closely with the French, Coastguard and the RNLI to do that. These crossings are extremely dangerous and people have died when making them.”

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