Protestors in Portsmouth are facing an angry backlash after branding lifeboat heroes 'traitors' for rescuing a boat carrying asylum seekers in the Channel. A group confronted Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) crews on Sunday night. The crews, based on the Isle of Wight, helped a 'mega dinghy' carrying around 120 people which was stranded in the Channel.
The dinghy came into UK waters from Cherbourg, near the ferry crossing for Portsmouth, rather than using the usual route from Calais into Dover, Kent. Those aboard were saved by lifeboat rescuers, who returned to find a group of men in a boat shouting at them: "How do you feel bringing illegal migrants into this country?"
Abuse and police investigation
A volunteer in a yellow life jacket told them: "I don’t know; I haven’t brought any in." The protestors replied: "Look at these guys absolute traitors to this country. Look at the state of you." Other footage posted also showed people shouting abuse at an RNLI crew on their boat, with repeated calls of 'traitors' and 'Yellow jackets, yellowbellies'. Another protestor described the lifesaving crews as 'scum'.
Police have launched a hunt for the masked thugs who injured officers and damaged vehicles during the anti-migrant protests in Portsmouth. They are investigating potential assaults and criminal damage after black-clad activists attempted to block migrants being driven away overnight on Sunday. A small number of officers were injured and some vehicles damaged during the protest against the small boat crossings in Portsmouth.
RNLI defends its mission
The RNLI defended their role, saying: "We are a voluntary lifesaving rescue service, tasked in the UK by HM Coastguard to assist anyone who is in trouble on the water. We will rescue those in danger without judgement or preference, as the RNLI has been doing for more than 200 years."
People whose lives were saved by the lifeboat volunteers have since praised their actions and defended the RNLI. Marian Boyd, a Conservative councillor who is the mayor of North East Lincolnshire, is fundraising for the charity this year after her life was saved during a yacht race. She told the Mirror: "From personal experience I was in a yachting race and caught in a storm when the RNLI came out to rescue us. So they are special to me because I was so anxious out there in the mouth of the Humber. It was freezing cold, and I have never been so glad to get back on dry land. We are up in North East Lincs, so the water is very deep and quite a few ships have gone down in the past."
She added: "At sea in a dinghy is very dangerous, you would not want to be out there in a under those circumstances. RNLI rescuers are unpaid. They get calls at all times of the day and night. I do not like the fact that there are so many boats coming over but I would not leave them out there to die." She also said: "There was a baby on board the other week, and my husband was saying, 'Why on earth would you bring a baby in on a boat like that?' But you cannot blame the RNLI. I remember when we went out, years ago now, it was a fine day with no storm forecast, it blew up without warning. That can happen at any time."
Widespread condemnation
Andrew Douglas, 54, a boat tour operator who has worked for more than 30 years off the North East coast in Northumberland, described attacks on the RNLI as 'crazy'. He said: "You do not want people dying. It is their job and that is what they are there to do, the job that they do is fantastic. When it comes to somebody dying, you cannot just leave them. If they went into the sea with such low water temperatures, they would not last two minutes."
He added: "If there is a man drowning, you cannot ignore him because he is an immigrant. To slag off the RNLI for saving lives, it is not British. You cannot have something like that. I think it says something about modern life. Common sense and decency have gone out the window. When you are at sea all the time, you have the RNLI as a safety net. They make a massive difference and save so many lives."
Amanda Martin, Portsmouth North MP, praised the RNLI and emergency services. She said: "They deserve our thanks, support and respect, not threats and abuse. Everyone has the right to protest peacefully and make their views heard. But there is a very clear line between peaceful protest and disorder. RNLI crews are volunteers. They put their lives at risk to help people in danger. They are not political; they see someone in trouble at sea and help them, whatever their background. That is an important principle that must not be lost."
A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesperson said: "Policing is committed to upholding and facilitating the right to lawful and peaceful protest, however we will not tolerate these rights being used to commit crime, particularly where that involves causing damage, disorder or serious disruption. Nationally, we have been supporting Kent Police and Hampshire & Isle of White Constabulary over the last few days in their response to recent events in their force areas."
Political and public reaction
The stand-off came after crowds of masked, black-clad men blocked road access to the Port of Dover on Saturday, in scenes condemned by politicians. Questions have been raised over whether police were adequately prepared. Nick Lowles, chief executive of Hope Not Hate, said there appeared to have been a failure of intelligence. He added: "To have 300, 400 people with balaclavas marching down the streets, stopping traffic. It’s not just good enough. We need to call these people out for their politics and for the type of Britain that they want to see. This is creating a climate of fear among migrants and immigrants, fear among people of colour. I think the government needs to be far more robust in standing up against this."
A grandfather, meanwhile, said he had to deflate his own dinghy to stop protesters taking it on Sunday night. Barry John-Williams, 69, said the protesters were "idiots" and some had offered him money to use his boat. He added: "They were offering to pay me money to take the boat and I said: 'Look it’s staying there,' and that’s why I deflated it. What they were going to do with it, I don’t know."
A Home Office spokesperson said: "We condemn the intimidating and thuggish behaviour we saw in Portsmouth last night. The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy, but it must never cross a line into disorder." The spokesperson added: "This Government is doing the hard and necessary work of bearing down on small boats crossings, with the lowest number of June to August arrivals since 2020."
Joe Robertson, Tory MP for the Isle of Wight East, writing to the Home Secretary, added: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank the brave lifeboat volunteers from Bembridge who were at sea for over 12 hours dealing with this very challenging situation. The RNLI is a charity established to save lives at sea and respond to boats in danger. It is not the job of the lifeboat to police UK waters. Anyone entering the UK without legal right to be here should be deported without delay by the Home Office, but when it comes to saving lives, every life matters no matter where you are from."
The RNLI defended their crews, saying: "They handed the casualties to relevant authorities on reaching shore. Due to the large number of members of the public on scene, some of whom had entered the water, several of the lifeboats stayed afloat for some time as a precaution. Everyone at the RNLI remains focused on our core purpose of saving lives at sea."
