On Tuesday 10th September, volunteers at the Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat took part in a situation which was more of a support rather than a ‘Shout’ response.

As such, this incident didn’t involve our boat crews or vessels in a water-based rescue task. Instead, volunteers from the team supported other emergency services who were tasked with dealing with migrant boat landings on local beaches.

The incident took place during the afternoon, when Police and Border Force teams attended Pett Level to deal with a situation of an illegal boat landing on local beaches. Because the situation was in a very close vicinity of the PLIRB base and boathouse, PLIRB volunteers supported emergency service colleagues by opening up the boat house and lookout.

The venue and facilities were then used as a temporary base for our service colleagues to manage the situation from, with the PLIRB team on hand to provide equipment and refreshments as required to everyone who was in need of this.

The BBC later attended the situation, along with local journalists. The incident has since been reported in the local Rye and Battle Observer.