Migrants in rubber dinghy rescued from sea off Dover

ITV News' Paul Davies reports:

Two migrants have been rescued from the English Channel after trying to make a sea crossing to the UK in a small inflatable dinghy.

The men, thought to be Iranians, had called for help after they got into trouble on the Dover Strait, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

They were rescued after a light from one of the migrants' mobile phone was spotted by a passing P&O ferry at around 3.30am this morning.

Rescuers at the RNLI said the two men were suffering from hypothermia and in a state of shock after spending up to eight hours at sea on the 10-foot dinghy with no life jackets or safety equipment.

James Clapham, coxswain at the Dover lifeboat station, said they were "lucky to be alive".

Lifeboats had scrambled to pick up the casualties, who were less than a mile off the Port of Dover but had been ask risk of being swept further out into the sea.

Once on land, they were given first aid and then handed over to Kent Police.

The rescue comes after the National Crime Agency warned that migrants were paying people smugglers up to £12,000 to get them on boats from France to the UK.

Anti-crime bosses added that gangs were increasingly targeting smaller British ports in an attempt to avoid tight security in major arrival hubs.