CONCERNS have been raised after a migrant boat was found washed up on the coast.
The 20ft Rigid Inflatable Boat was discovered on the beach near to the Last Fisherman Café in East Terrace, Walton, at about 8am today.
While no occupants were spotted, items left in the boat led those who found it to believe it was used by migrants to travel to the UK from the continent.
Stuart Keen, of Naze Park Road, said: “I was taking my dog, Leonard, out in Walton and came across the boat.
“I didn’t know what it was until I got close up, but there was no-one else near it at all.
“It was full of about five jerry cans and plastic containers cut at an angle, which may have been used to bail out water.
“There were also silver and gold blankets that keep people warm.
“I imagine it is too far too come from Belgium or Holland, so maybe they were going to Dover and it then drifted across the Thames.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence confirmed the unique reference number on the boat was made by the MOD.
He said: “The occupants of the vessel were accounted for and were safely brought to shore to be entered into the UK’s immigration pathway.
“The objective of military primacy is to prevent uncontrolled small boat landings in the UK and ensure that migrant boats are identified, safely intercepted and that individuals on board are appropriately brought into the Home Office immigration system.
“New capabilities will come into service that will help track empty boats and improve the recovery rate further.”
Clacton MP Giles Watling added: “We don’t often see this happen here as we are 90 miles from the continent.
“But there are evil people traffickers out there who are putting lives at risk.
“Trying to cross the sea in an open boat at this time of year in freezing weather is incredibly dangerous.
“We must do all we can to stop this happening.”
Two Somali nationals travelling in a small boat off the Harwich coastline were pulled from the sea in October last year.
An extensive search was launched for a third man before being called off the following day.
Then Home Secretary Priti Patel described the incident as an “absolute tragedy”.
It prompted Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, to call on the Government to do more to make migrants’ journeys less dangerous.
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