The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has confirmed that it turned off the location trackers on two of its lifeboats earlier this week to protect volunteers from harassment.
On Tuesday, two of its lifeboats attended a small boat crossing in the English Channel, which had been underway for 36 hours.
The incident led to reports of anti-immigration protestors tracking the vessels using the marine automatic identification system (AIS) and attacking one of the boats at the scene.
Yesterday, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that Daniel Thomas had been charged with criminal damage following an alleged incident where a boat was damaged in the sea on Tuesday night.
According to BBC News reports, Thomas today entered a not guilty plea in court.
An RNLI spokesperson told Civil Society: “The safety of our crews is our priority and in the current climate – when they have become targets of abuse for saving lives at sea – we took a decision to switch off AIS for our two lifeboats temporarily as a precaution.
“This in no way compromised their safety at sea as communication with HM Coastguard and vessels in the area was maintained via other channels. Decisions to turn trackers off in the future will be made on a case-by-case basis.”
Earlier this month, RNLI said that some of its workers and volunteers had been subject to online and in-person abuse after the recent anti-immigration protests organised in Dover and Portsmouth.
RNLI’s spokesperson yesterday confirmed that its Portsmouth lifeboat station remains closed after being taken off service on 7 September.
“We have a duty of care to our people, we therefore took the decision to pause activity at the station to review crew safety and wellbeing and to support those involved in the incident on 6 September,” they said.
