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UK charges 2 men with immigration offenses after boat rescue

It comes after 18 Albanians had to be rescued when their inflatable boat sank off the coast of Kent on Saturday night.

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Responding, Home Office minister Lord Ahmad said he could not give operational details about the Border Force, but insisted there was sufficient capability and funding in place to maintain a presence in United Kingdom waters.

Franck Duvell from the University of Oxford’s Centre on Migration, Policy and Society told the Economist says that this increase is caused both by a rise in the number of people trying to enter Britain-many of them fleeing war-torn parts of the Middle East and Africa-and by the fact that they are more tenacious.

People living on the south coast of England say the inflatable craft intercepted at Dymchurch, Kent, is just one of many suspected to have brought migrants to United Kingdom shores.

The boat was found at 2am and the matter was handed over to Border Force.

A Home Office spokesman confirmed that there was one woman and two children aboard the boat.

He said: “Unless we take action we are not going to stop people coming across the Channel in increasing numbers as the summer progresses”.

Calais coastguard organization SNSM assisted in the rescue operation, according to its president Bernard Barron.

“A separate vessel was also discovered on the beach at Dymchurch”.

Mr Barron said “smugglers have now found a new strategy” after it had become “virtually impossible” for migrants to cross into the United Kingdom via the Channel Tunnel or on ferries.

“The HM Coastguard search-and-rescue helicopter from Lydd, RNLI lifeboats from Dungeness and Littlestone, and coastguard rescue teams from Dungeness and Folkestone were sent”.

She said: “We are not doing enough to control our coastline, the Government has to address border controls, something has to be done to protect these people from harm and our borders”.

David Monk, leader of the Shepway Conservative local authority near Dover, said that boosted surveillance measures would identify most unauthorized crossing attempts.

“We also need co-operation with continental partners to make sure that the sending countries are able to provide that level of security while we look out for our maritime borders”.

A lifeboatman whose crew was called out to attend the incident has echoed warnings about the dangers of the stretch of water in which the vessel was found listing.

Two British men have since been charged with people smuggling.

Some 17 suspected Albanian migrants were detained Tuesday, May 24, after a boat arrived at Chichester Marina on the south coast.

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The National Crime Agency, Britain’s top crime-fighting force, last month warned that criminal gangs have begun targeting quieter ports.

Migrants rescued after inflatable dinghy sinks off Kent coast