I'm an RNLI volunteer, I've lost several family members at sea: here's why our critics are misguided

 LONDON — In recent weeks in the U.K., the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has come under attack from right-wing for launching to rescue dinghies of migrants in the English Channel, leading to temporary suspension of services in Portsmouth.

 The RNLI was founded on March 4, 1824 by Sir William Hillary. He had witnessed numerous shipwrecks of the Isle of Man and wanted to create an institution which would help with ‘the preservation of human life from shipwreck’ and the provision of ‘assistance to vessels in distress’. The founding charter of the RNLI, written in the City of London Tavern on Bishopsgate, consisted of 12 resolutions, which included. ‘immediate assistance [should] be afforded to persons rescued as their necessities may require’ and that ‘the subjects of all nations be equally objects of the Institution, as well in war as in peace’.

 The mission stays the same, with the same 12 resolutions from 1824 included in the current RNLI charter. We are tasked the HM Coastguards to help those in distress and we’ll do so whenever, wherever, whomever they may be. Since its founding, the RNLI has saved over 147,000 lives (on average two a day) and helped many more.

 Only 1.2 percent of call-outs in 2025 were to migrants dinghies in the channel, out of over 9,000 shouts. The other 98.8 percent were for other people in need along our coastlines. Should the RNLI cease to exist due to a small number of cases? Should we get rid of a crucial volunteer service that saves lives day in day out, who launch at any time to those in need in the water? Even during World War II, the RNLI rescued German soldiers. While there was criticism for the rescues of the ‘enemy’, the RNLI continued its founding principle of neutrality and saved those in need of assistance. As we continue to do so today. A life at risk is a life at risk, why should one life be worth more than another based on nationality and origin?

 As is the case with all callouts, once the boat returns to shore, if needed the casualties are handed over to necessary authorities, whether that be coastguard, ambulance service or police. The migrants who are rescued are handed over to the border force once on British soil. The RNLI has no say over the jurisdiction of the land.

 How many people now in Portsmouth and surrounding areas are at risk following the suspension of services? Fishermen, other seafarers working on merchant ships or cargo vessels, surfers, paddle boarders, kayakers, people enjoying the sea and coastline for leisure. People whose dogs or sheep or horses have ran over the cliff edge, people with a broken foot on the beach, people who are blown out to sea on inflatables. Medical emergencies with causalities who need extracting off boats, missing people who have fallen overboard, people drowning and praying for someone to rescue them. All these lives, human and animal, are now at risk in Portsmouth due to the relentless and selfish attacks by the right-wing.

 I have been a crew member for several years now on the North Sea coastline and have lost several family members to incidents at sea. My family have also been volunteering with the RNLI since its founding. The RNLI, thus, is a charity very close to my heart. We launch for people whose engines have broken down, we launch for people trapped by the tide, we launch for those in crisis. We work closely with the coastguard and the police, searching for missing people or recovering casualties, providing a crucial eye from the sea.

 There is more behind the scenes to being an RNLI volunteer than meets the eye. In small coastal communities, not only do you go to sea but you are the first point of call for any emergency in the village - from heart attacks to broken legs to fingers cut off with saws - administering first aid and keeping the situation under control on dry land until paramedics arrive, which can take several hours. In many villages, the RNLI are the backbone of the community.

 To attack a charity of volunteers who give their free time to help people in need is something so cruel, something un-British and inhumane. The RNLI’s policies have not changed for 200 years - neutral, providing immediate assistance to subjects of all nations. Instead it is the British right-wing that has slowly be moving further and further right, down a slippery slope until the point they feel comfortable attacking ordinary working people who give their free time to come to the assistance of others in need to the point a station has to suspended its services.

 There is a particular irony that the same politicians invoking this witch hunt against the RNLI are the same politicians that sold the lie that Brexit would allow us better control over our borders. Under the Dublin Accords, the U.K. was allowed to refuse migrants and send them back to their first point of entry. However, following Brexit and the subsequent withdrawal from the Dublin Accords, the U.K. must legally accept any migrant coming to seek refuge in the country. The right-wing politicians who are attacking the RNLI are using it as a guise to draw the attention away from the fact it was a problem they themselves caused by encouraging the people to leave the EU. They are deliberately ignoring that small boat crossings have dropped by 44 per cent compared to this time in 2025, they are deciding that some human lives are more worthy than others human lives based on origin and instead choosing to attack a 200 year old institution.

 The problem is not the RNLI, it is not the refugees arriving on our coastlines. If the U.K. is under attack, it is under attack by those politicians and people in power that claim to be speaking for a country and yet attack an institution so fundamentally British for political gain. It should be a source of pride for all calling the United Kingdom home that we have thousands of volunteers all over the coast ready to go to sea at any time of day, year round, no matter the weather conditions, to rescue others in need asking nothing in return.

 To those attacking the RNLI, just think, next time it could be you who needs saving.

vy