How Delaware police helped a stranded Albanian migrant reach the United Kingdom.

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An Albanian who crossed illegally by boat from France to the United Kingdom attempted to make a distress call to the port of Dover, but was instead reached and helped by police in Dover, Delaware, 3,500 miles away. On August 27, the Dover, Delaware police received a distress call that led to an unexpected international rescue operation.

The caller reported that his ship was sinking. However, the emergency was in the English Channel, more than 3,500 miles from the capital of Delaware. The Albanian illegal, urgently seeking help for his brother’s sinking ship, mistakenly contacted the wrong Dover. Despite the significant geographic error, communications operator MacKenzie Atkinson noted the ship’s coordinates and the nature of the emergency.

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Within four minutes, her colleague Connor Logan had contacted the French Coastguard, His Majesty’s Coastguards and the Coordination Centre of the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The call eventually reached the correct emergency services in Dover, England.

On September 5, the British Coordination Centre confirmed that the ship had been located and all passengers were retrieved.

“The caller had searched the internet for ‘Dover Police Department’ and the first result was the Dover, Delaware Police Department. The family member thought they were contacting Dover, England, but instead reached our agency in the United States,” Delaware police said.

While it is unknown whether the caller is involved in human trafficking, many Albanian nationals have been linked to criminal activity in the English Channel, as recently as July when a smuggler was sentenced to nine years in prison for helping hundreds of migrants reach the UK illegally. Albanian drug gangs have also been caught paying for the passage of illegal immigrants in order to recruit them as drug dealers once they reach Britain.