Last night, police intercepted a small boat carrying migrants hoping to reach the beaches of the UK in the hamlet of Klemskerke in the family seaside resort of De Haan (West Flanders). Nineteen individuals attempting to make the crossing to the UK were on board. But their boat had got into difficulty. The emergency services brought the migrants ashore in Ostend. ‘We are noticing that the problem is spreading to the entire coast,’ police sources say.
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Transmigrants now intercepted in De Haan as UK small boats crisis spreads to the entire Flemish coast
Colin Clapson
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It was another busy night in coastal police districts. Together with federal police, local officers carried out extra checks hoping to stop people smugglers and migrants. The operation began at 6 pm yesterday evening. “Shortly after it started, we already saw suspicious vehicles entering Belgium from France,” says Christiaan De Ridder, deputy chief of west coast police. “We proceeded to follow them.”
A problem along the entire coast
Off the coast, off the resort of De Haan, police intercepted a small boat carrying 19 people. It’s the first time a small boat carrying migrants has been intercepted so far from the French border. “We don’t know exactly where on the coast that boat had set sail. Did they it drift along the coast ? Were they sailing in the wrong direction? The investigation will have to reveal that.”
“We were also able to arrest a people smuggler. Shortly afterwards, we found a car containing petrol and an outboard motor for a small boat. The driver of that car managed to escape, however. Migrants were also detected in the sand dunes at the resort of De Panne on the French border."
Also in De Panne, police were able to intercept yet another small boat carrying migrants. Rescue services escorted it to French waters.