Nearly 40 migrants rescued in the Nort Sea

36 people have been rescued from a drifting boat in the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands, local authorities said on Saturday.

Two more people have been arrested on suspicion of people smuggling.

‘This is the first time we have encountered anything like this in Dutch waters, but we do not yet know where the boat came from,’ says Doron Wallin, a captain with the Dutch police.

The people on board, all men, had no identity documents on them and were not wearing life jackets. Before the authorities intervened, the boat is said to have been drifting without an engine, and the situation is described as “very dangerous”.

The rescue operation took place off the town of Breskens in the southern part of the country, on the other side of the North Sea from the UK.

The migrants claimed to be from Afghanistan, and the suspected people smugglers from Sudan.