The men had spent 12 hours on the water in a rubber boat

The men, all in their twenties, were rescued three miles off the coast by the Dover lifeboat on Sunday morning.

They had been spotted at about 0600 BST paddling towards the coast by the crew of a passenger ferry and were pulled from their boat by lifeboat crew.

The trio, who wore shorts and t-shirts, were believed to have spent about 12 hours on the water and were starting to suffer from hypothermia.

They were very lucky to get that far crossing the lanes in the middle of the night Coxswain Dave Pascall

Lifeboat coxswain Dave Pascall said: "It's the sort of dinghy you would buy in Woolworth's for a couple of small kiddies in a paddling pool, no more than about six feet long.

"It just needed one little puncture and it would go down, so they were very lucky to get that far crossing the lanes in the middle of the night, which they obviously did.

"It had a bit of water in it when we got to it - they had obviously been bailing it out.

"They were right in the middle of the south west lane and there was a freighter that passed by while we were recovering it no more than about 50 yards away - so no doubt they had a few close encounters in the night."

The dinghy, just visible, was only 50 yards from a passing freighter

The men are believed to have launched the dinghy from near Calais.

Dover Coastguards said they had attempted to transfer the men on to a ferry heading back to France but no vessel could arrange to take them on board.

All three were taken to hospital to be checked and are now being held at the Port of Dover by immigration officials who are due to interview them later.

Immigration officials in the Port of Dover said two of the men were believed to be from Romania and the other from Chechnya. None of them could speak English.