LÉ Niamh crew get break from rescues

A specialist team has flown out to Sicily to offer counselling to crew members on LÉ Niamh, who have been given a four-day break from migrant rescue operations.

The ship left the port of Messina yesterday on her way to Catania, also in Sicily, where the crew will get some rest and relaxation as well as the opportunity, if they so wish, to speak to counsellors in the wake of their discovery of 14 dead migrants on a wooden barge.

The bodies of the dead, who were among more than 500 migrants crammed “like sardines” into the barge, have been handed over to the Italian authorities who are carrying out an investigation into how they died.

It is widely believed that the 13 men and one male teenager died from crush injuries and suffocation.

Their bodies were discovered in the lowest deck of the barge after LÉ Niamh and the Medécins Sans Frontiére vessel MV Dignity 1 were called to intercept it last Monday 80km north-west of Tripoli, Libya.

The Irish vessel removed the bodies and 210 survivors from the barge, while MV Dignity took onboard the remaining survivors.

The barge had only left Tripoli 12 hours earlier and it came as a shock to the rescue teams that people were dead onboard.

However, while they had previously rescued large numbers of people cramped into barges, they had not witnessed the sheer number that were squeezed into that one.

To date, LÉ Niamh’s 57-strong crew, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Daniel Wall, have rescued 1,280 migrants.

LÉ Niamh will take on fuel and supplies while she is berthed in Catania and it is expected she will recommence operations Monday.

She took over duties on the EU-led humanitarian rescue mission in the Mediterranean from LÉ Eithne which had rescued 3,377 migrants during her nine-week tour of duty.

Meanwhile, the Naval Service has confirmed that the newest addition to the fleet, LÉ James Joyce, will be officially commissioned into service on September 1.

The €70m ship, which was built in Appledore, Devon, will be commissioned at a ceremony in Dun Laoghaire.

She will have a 46-strong crew under the command of Lieutenant Commander Brian Dempsey.

The third of the new ships being given to the Naval Service, LÉ William Butler Yates, is expected to arrive next summer.

It will be commanded by Lieutenant Commander Eric Timon.