Dutch authorities have rescued 38 people found drifting in an unpowered rubber dinghy off the country’s southwestern coast, marking an unusual interception for Dutch waters.
Military police spokesperson Doron Wallin told journalists on Saturday that the boat was discovered off the coast of Zeeland province, located far southwest of Amsterdam. According to officials, the inflatable vessel was drifting entirely without a motor, and none of the individuals on board were wearing life vests.
All 38 occupants of the boat were men. Thirty-six of them were from Afghanistan, while the remaining two were identified as Sudanese nationals suspected of operating the smuggling vessel. Both Sudanese men have been arrested on suspicion of human smuggling.
Investigators have yet to determine the origins or the intended destination of the boat. “We don’t know where they came from – France, the Netherlands or Belgium – and we don’t know where the boat was heading,” Wallin said.
While perilous small-boat crossings from northern France toward the United Kingdom have become an everyday occurrence across the English Channel in recent years, discovering migrant vessels in Dutch coastal waters remains highly uncommon. “These are things you usually see in France and Belgium. We rarely see it here in the Netherlands before today,” Wallin noted.
Dutch authorities are scheduled to formally open an expanded investigation into the incident on Sunday to establish the full trajectory of the journey and the network behind it.
