EXCLUSIVEStolen away by people smugglers to ferry migrants across the Channel, the beloved boat now returned to its joyful owners… by the Mail!

A retired couple’s ­precious boat stolen by a gang to smuggle migrants from France to England has been returned to them after a Herculean battle against officialdom by the Mail.

The much-cherished red-and-white vessel, named Aidan and little bigger than a bathtub, was delivered to the pensioners at their picturesque ­village near Dunkirk in northern France amid tears, laughter – and much kissing of cheeks in the French style.

‘Merci, merci again,’ said an ­emotional Eric Blin, hugging me as he set eyes on Aidan for the first time since February.

‘We never thought our bateau would come back. She disappeared at night from our local canal and we were told by the French police and British ­Border Force that a smuggling gang had taken her to England.’

The retired welder bought Aidan on the internet for £2,200 as a present to his wife Nadia, a former laundress. They planned to spend this summer taking it out for picnics along the ­willow-lined canal near their home in Watten village, which leads 15 miles to the North Sea at Dunkirk.

Eric Blin bought Aidan on the internet for £2,200 as a present to his wife Nadia, a former laundress

They planned to spend this summer taking it out for picnics along the ­willow-lined canal near their home in Watten village, which leads 15 miles to the North Sea at Dunkirk

Mr and Mrs Blin have been reunited with their beloved boat thanks to the Mail

That dream, however, was destroyed by the smugglers who snatched the boat to travel along the canal before making the perilous ­journey across the Channel to Dover with five migrants squashed on board.

The Mail’s search for Aidan (‘Nadia’ in reverse, painted by Eric on its hull) began when we first met the couple, both 62, during our investigation last spring into a spate of small boat thefts by migrant smugglers from the ­Watten waterway for Channel crossings to the Kent coast.

The village and its canal is now a key set-off point for people smugglers as they try to avoid French police patrolling the Dunkirk and Calais beaches to stop the myriad migrant crossings in small boats. The couple told us the story of their lost boat and we promised to find Aidan – which we knew must have been hidden somewhere in England –and return it safely to them.

After weeks of combing the ports, boatyards, beaches and inlets along the coastline of Kent and Sussex, we traced the vessel to a secretive and guarded ­Government compound three miles from Dover.

Using an overhead drone, we spotted it lying in a corner of the open-air complex, ­surrounded by ­hundreds of smugglers’ rubber dinghies seized by Border Force.

‘We did not know if she had been broken up for scrap. We were ­forgotten by both ­countries,’ Eric told us this week. ‘Bravo to the Mail for finding our lost boat and battling the authorities which did not seem to care about us.’

Eric had moored Aidan for the winter two months after buying it in August 2023. He tied the boat securely to the canal bank near the couple’s terraced home.

‘I thought she was safe,’ he remembered this week. ‘Then the smugglers came for her.’

The boat was stolen just before midnight on February 9, after a gang ­scouting the area picked it out, cut its rope and released it from the bank mooring.

Five migrants, including a child, were put on board for the overnight crossing to Dover. It is thought they paid a total of £6,000 for the journey.

The smugglers were spotted by French police at 5am, a few miles from the point where the canal to Dunkirk from Watten village meets the North Sea.

Although the boat was ­unseaworthy, had only four lifejackets and was ­dangerously overloaded, officers did not halt the vessel as it made its ­dangerous journey.

It ploughed on through a calm – but bitterly cold – night towards ­British waters. At the border in the middle of the Channel, migrants on board were met and escorted into Dover by Border Force vessels during the morning of February 10.

We have seen Border Force ­photos, shared with the Blin ­family, of Aidan after its arrival in Dover. It is in a shambolic state, caked in mud and littered with the migrants’ debris including discarded insulated gold-coloured blankets given to them by the smuggling gang.

The boat was then dumped by the British in the lock-up and left to rot in months of rain and bad weather.

Aiden now has holes in its hull and damage to its deck, thought to have been caused by the prongs of a fork-lift truck used to move it from port to lock-up after arrival in England.

The boat was stolen just before midnight on February 9, after a gang ­scouting the area picked it out, cut its rope and released it from the bank mooring

When the Mail first asked the Home Office in London what had happened to Aidan, we received evasive responses.

We asked political aides of the then Conservative government’s Home Office ministers to help find the boat and return it to the Blin family. They agreed to do so, but the snap General Election was called, throwing a promised ­rescue plan into disarray.

Finally, we approached Border Force officers stationed in France who refused to answer our questions because they ‘don’t deal with the media’.

The wall of silence was ­impenetrable. It was hard not to ­conclude that Eric was correct – no one in officialdom on either side of the Channel cared a jot.

Frustrated, in July we hired a team of French lawyers to help retrieve the boat and return it. They navigated a tricky path negotiating with the French and British authorities on behalf of the Blin family.

Finally, after many weeks, we received permission from ­Border Force and the French police to collect the missing boat on behalf of Eric and Nadia from the lock-up in Dover.

A first attempt by the Mail to tow Aidan behind a sturdy ­fishing boat across the Channel late last month ended halfway to France. The little boat had been so badly damaged in ­English ­custody that it let in water and had to be pulled back to Dover to safety.

On Tuesday morning this week, we put the boat on a low loader behind a four-wheel drive to travel back to France on a cross-Channel ferry

Our second attempt was a ­success. On Tuesday morning this week, we put the boat on a low loader behind a four-wheel drive to travel back to France on a cross-Channel ferry.

We then took it the 27 miles to Watten ­village for the happy reunion with the Blins.

There are not many good news stories around in this troubled world but this is one. We ­promised the ­pensioners, and their daughter Melissa, who helps refugee ­families in France, to rescue the boat and give it back to them. And this week, to their joy, we succeeded.