A Mongolian asylum seeker, who was rescued from a blue rubber dinghy by Dover Lifeboat on Friday is thought to still be in police custody.

Dover Lifeboat was called out around 2.57pm on Friday to rescue the exhausted man who had rowed across the Channel from Calais in France.

Crew member Steve Ladner said: “A number of ships had reported this blue dingy and people were concerned. It’s a dangerous situation.”

The lifeboat were called and launched their all-weather boat - City London 2, with seven crew members on board.

They recovered the man in his mid 30s, and brought him back to shore, where Border Force officers were waiting.

Mr Ladner added: “It was obvious he wasn’t English, he didn’t have anything with him, just a small duffle bag. We didn’t know he was an asylum seeker, that’s only what the police said.”

The lifeboat members returned to duty at 5pm.

It is thought the man is still in the hands of the police.

Only last month, an Afghanistan migrant, Asif Hussein Khai, 23, tried to reach the UK on a ramshackle raft made of planks of wood and a bedsheet, but was picked up by the French Coastguard.