Migrant boat launched from Dutch territory in apparent first for the Netherlands

A boat found drifting off Cadzand

Radar picked up a rubber boat off the Cadzand coast between 05.30 and 06.00 on Saturday, 31 October, and the coastguard set out to it. Around 06.00 the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee received a report of a distressing situation on the North Sea near the Zeeland-Flemish coast. When the coastguard and police reached the boat, it was overcrowded, had no steering and was missing its engine. The boat was towed into the harbour at Cadzand, where medical staff examined the 38 people on board. The Marechaussee said the occupants were generally doing well and showed no signs of hypothermia. The search for the engine continued off Cadzand.

Where the boat set out from

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) said on Thursday, 5 November, that the boat set out from Dutch territory, but it will not say where, and the authorities are not commenting while the case is investigated. At first, the suspicion was that the boat had drifted from Belgium. Omroep Zeeland reported, citing several sources it spoke to, that the migrants probably boarded east of Breskens. The occupants presumably wanted to reach the British coast, but the intended destination has not been confirmed.

On board and under arrest

Of the 38 people on board, 36 were Afghan men and two were Sudanese men suspected of people smuggling. Six of the occupants were minors, all boys, who were taken to the reception centre in Ter Apel on Saturday evening. The two Sudanese men were arrested and are suspected of trying to smuggle the other occupants to England. On Tuesday, 3 November, the investigating judge ordered that they remain in custody for two more weeks. A Marechaussee spokesperson confirmed that at least one adult, who also applied for asylum, was taken to Ter Apel that evening. The other migrants will go through the foreign-national procedure and have been spread across police and Marechaussee reception locations, a spokesperson said on Thursday evening.

Afghan men36

Sudanese men suspected of smuggling2

Afghan men

36

Sudanese men suspected of smuggling

2

Data from the article text

A shift toward the north

Bram Frouws, director of the migration knowledge centre MMC, called the situation very exceptional and said it is, as far as he knows, the first time a migrant boat has left the Netherlands. Asked whether the so-called waterbed effect reaches the Netherlands, he said it is certainly present but too early to say it extends this far.

“This is too exceptional for that.”

Frouws added that migrants more often try to board the ferry from Hoek van Holland, though that is also a relatively small phenomenon. Migration routes to the UK have moved north from the European mainland, a shift that appears to follow stricter patrols by the French and British coastguards. Most boats first left near Calais, but this year the number of boats off the Belgian coast rose sharply, and Belgian police say suspected smugglers increasingly use that coast as a base, though they have no figures. More than 22,000 migrants reached the UK through the end of October, according to the British Home Office, a figure 40 percent lower than in October 2025. About 8,500 people reached the UK irregularly in 2018, against about 46,000 in the latest year reported, and since Britain left the EU, migrants whose asylum claims were refused on the continent can try again by sea.

What happens next

The OM investigation is ongoing, and the OM has not said where the launch took place. The search for the boat's motor continues off Cadzand. The two Sudanese men remain in custody for two weeks from the decision of 3 November. Frouws does not immediately expect a comparable crossing.