Suspected illegal immigrants on 28-foot yacht sailed ‘unaware’ into hazards near to Orford Quay

UK Border Agency intercepted a boat approaching Orford. Picture: GREGG BROWN

The gentle bobbing of a small yacht belied suspicions it carried a cargo of smuggled people into Orford Quay the previous morning.

On Sunday, seven people, thought to be of Ukrainian nationality, were arrested by the border force and detained at local police stations, after a 28-foot yacht struggled in strong winds and ran aground on the banks of the River Ore.

The coastguard, RNLI lifeboat crews, Suffolk police and UK Border Agency were all called to the scene.

Aldeburgh's inshore lifeboat crew had discovered the yacht inside the river mouth, in danger of running aground again, after it had initially managed to refloat.

A tow was eventually secured for the boat to be taken to Orford Quay, where it was handed over to HM Coastguard Shingle Street and the Border Agency.

Yesterday, a local fisherman said: 'The boat went aground at the [Orford Haven] bar in low water. The crew was obviously unaware there wouldn't be much water at that time.

'I think the inshore lifeboat went out on the understanding there were two people on board, but realised there were more below and called the border force.

'It's a fairly remote area, and it's a job to keep tabs on everything. If it had come in during the week, with a tender, it might have made it ashore. It was quite seaworthy but the conditions were difficult.'

Last year, fears were raised over the region's isolated coastline becoming vulnerable to criminals smuggling drugs, weapons and people into the country, following cuts to border patrols and policing.

Local fishermen and the volunteers, keeping watch on the county's coastline, claimed authorities responsible for protecting our borders were spread too thinly to remain effective.

Chris Hobbs, a former Metropolitan Police Special Branch officer, who worked in border control, then warned resources had been redeployed to cover the security threat facing major airports, leaving coastal defences 'almost nonexistent'.

His warning, that isolated regions such as the Suffolk coast were becoming more attractive to smugglers, came after the Home Office and Suffolk Constabulary turned away Freedom of Information requests seeking details about the scale of smuggling in the county – citing national security risks as the reason.

At an Ipswich Crown Court hearing in October 2014, Oleksander Kozak, one of the three Ukrainians who pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate a breach of the UK's immigration law, was said to have told officers he had carried out a run from London to Orford on seven previous occasions.

He was one of three Ukrainians jailed for their part in an illegal operation bringing immigrants into the UK at Orford Quay.

Kozak, Oleg Bogdanov, and Oleksii Pavliuchenko were stopped by Border Force officers as they attempted to bring the six Eastern Europeans into the country illegally.

People smuggling between Orford and Bawdsey had been listed as a safer neighbourhood team priority for Woodbridge and District between October 2014 and April 2015.

Last September, fresh fears were raised about Suffolk's vulnerability to smugglers, following claims border patrol officers were late attending reports of a suspicious vessel offshore.

That month, a group of suspected illegal immigrants were smuggled into Suffolk on a yacht to Bawdsey, where they were seen getting into a vehicle – later found abandoned in the car park of a restaurant near Woodbridge. Four men and two women were caught on CCTV running from a Range Rover at the Unruly Pig, in Bromeswell.