THE HEROIC efforts of the Irish Navy on board the LÉ Niamh – most of whom are Cork based – prevented a tragedy on an even greater scale when they saved 400 migrants from drowning yesterday.
The ship, which departed Haulbowline last month, responded to a distress call from an overcrowded fishing boat at the request of the Italian Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre about 100km north of Tripoli just before noon. As they started the rescue, the boat – designed to carry 50 but with 700 on board -capsized and sank with minutes, leaving hundreds trapped below deck. Haulbowline-based Lieutenant Commander Brian FitzGerald described the event as “a terrible tragedy unfolding right before our eyes.”
A picture from yesterday’s rescue from Médecins Sans Frontières.
“Our worst fear was realised when the vessel capsized in front of our very eyes. Many of the migrants couldn’t swim, many had never seen the sea before.” 367 rescued people were brought aboard the LÉ Niamh, including 342 men, 12 women, and 13 children. Some 25 bodies were recovered, including four children.They were due to arrive at Palermo around 3pm this afternoon.
The LÉ NIAMH, which had rescued 1,280 migrants in previous operations, has a crew of 57 personnel, 33 of whom are either from Cork or are Cork based, and is commanded by Glanmire based Lieutenant Commander Daniel Wall.
Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney, TD said it was a scene that will scar people for some time.
He confirmed that the crew: “will have full support services in port when they arrive to help them deal with what they have encountered. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have lost their lives, the survivors and the rescuers for whom this is an extremely difficult operation.”
Discussing the continuing issue of migrants risking their lives to flee North Africa for the EU’s shores, Minister Coveney said: “This tragedy serves as a reminder of the consequences of not putting a more complete solution in place.
“What we’ve been focusing on is search and rescue, but we can’t do that forever.
“There needs to be bigger and broader solutions found to this migration crisis.”
It’s believed the boat left from the city of Zuwara in the north-west of the country early yesterday.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) only days ago warned the death toll of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean this year had reached 2,000 compared with 3,279 for the whole of 2014.
The crew on the Medecins Sans Frontieres vessel MV Dignity I, who were also involved in the rescue operation said there had been “many deaths.”