About thirty people who were drifting at sea in an inflatable boat were rescued this morning in the south of the Netherlands, authorities announced.
The gendarmerie and coast guard towed the boat, which was drifting near the town of Breskens, about 250 kilometers south of Amsterdam, to shore, said gendarmerie spokesman Doron Valin.
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There were 38 people in the boat, including two individuals who were detained on suspicion of human smuggling, Valin told the AP agency.
No one was wearing a life jacket and it is not known where the people came from or where they were headed.
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The rescued individuals were transferred from the boat to land and examined to determine if they showed signs of hypothermia, then taken to another location until their nationality and migration status are established.
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“We do not know where they came from – from France, the Netherlands, or Belgium – nor do we know where the boat was headed,” Valin said.
In recent years, tens of thousands of migrants have tried to cross the English Channel, the narrow sea passage separating France from the United Kingdom, but this is one of the rare cases where they have been discovered near the Netherlands.
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“This is usually seen in France and Belgium. Here in the Netherlands, before today, we have rarely had the opportunity to see them,” Valin said.
The governments of the United Kingdom and France signed an agreement worth several million euros earlier this year to strengthen police patrols and improve surveillance in northern France, in order to reduce the number of migrants crossing the Channel.