140 Migrants Rescued Off Eastney as Far-Right Protesters Converge on Portsmouth

Around 140 migrants were intercepted in the Solent on Saturday after their small boats were spotted off Eastney beach, prompting a coordinated response from RNLI lifeboat crews, HM Coastguard and Border Force.

The crossings took place in the early hours of 6 September. Multiple inflatable dinghies were detected in waters off the Eastney foreshore south of Portsmouth, with rescue crews from the RNLI Hayling Island and Portsmouth stations deployed alongside a Coastguard helicopter. Passengers, including men, women and children, were brought ashore safely.

Within hours of the arrivals becoming public knowledge, far-right activists began converging on the Portsmouth seafront. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary issued a dispersal order covering Eastney and the surrounding Southsea area until midnight on Monday, after groups attempted to block roads near the beach and confront local residents. Officers from neighbouring forces were drafted in to support local police. Several arrests were made.

The RNLI said its volunteers acted on humanitarian grounds alone. The Home Office said those who had arrived irregularly would be processed in line with current immigration rules.

MarineRadar vessel tracking data shows Portsmouth was one of the fastest-rising maritime search zones in the UK over the 48 hours before the landings, with search volume for the port climbing sharply from a near-zero baseline, a pattern that has previously corresponded with increased small-boat activity in the eastern English Channel and Solent. Eastney itself broke out as a new trending location on the platform over the same period.

The Solent is less commonly used as a final approach point than the beaches around Dungeness and Camber in Kent. The arrival of a large group at Eastney drew particular attention given its proximity to the Royal Marine base at Eastney Barracks and a residential stretch of the Portsmouth seafront.