THE HAGUE — Dozens of people adrift at sea in a rubber boat were rescued early on Saturday off the coast of the southern Netherlands, in one of the first such interceptions in the country, the Associated Press reported.

Source: Associated Press via Bytes Europe, Oct 31, 2026

The Marechaussee military police and the Netherlands coast guard rescued the boat early in the morning and towed it to shore. It had no motor and was drifting off the coast of Zeeland province near the town of Breskens, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) from Amsterdam, Marechaussee spokesperson Doron Wallin told the Associated Press. There were 38 people on the boat, and no one was wearing a life vest.

All 38 on board were men — 36 of them from Afghanistan, and two, the suspected smugglers, from Sudan — according to the AFP news agency. The two Sudanese men were detained on suspicion of people smuggling. It was not immediately clear where the boat had come from or where it was heading.

Source: AFP via Barbados Gazette, Oct 31, 2026

"We don't know where they came from — France, the Netherlands or Belgium — and we don't know where the boat was heading," Wallin told the Associated Press. Those on board were taken to dry land, checked for signs of hypothermia and then taken to another location while their nationalities and migration status are investigated.

Dutch authorities were expected to open an investigation into the case on Sunday, AFP reported. Crossings by refugees and migrants in small boats from France to the United Kingdom have become commonplace in recent years, but a drifting, motorless boat carrying 38 people off the Dutch coast is a rarity — which is why officials described the rescue as one of the first interceptions of its kind in the Netherlands.