Number of migrants saved by LÉ Eithne exceeds 2,000

The number of lives saved by the Naval Service flagship LÉ Eithne passed the 2,000 mark after she picked up her largest number of migrants in any one day of operations off the coast of Libya.

The rescues were made as the EU announced a new policy to search out and destroy vessels being used by human traffickers in an effort to stifle their business.

Defence Minister Simon Coveney said that decision was part of a bigger strategy being adopted to address the humanitarian crisis.

As weather conditions continue to improve in the Mediterranean Sea, it is expected LÉ Eithne could become even busier in the days ahead as she, along with ships from the British, German and Italian navies go on heightened alert for people-smuggling operations.

The ship was involved in three separate rescues yesterday — an inflatable dinghy, wooden barge and fibreglass boat — which occurred around 60 miles north-west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

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The operations, which started early yesterday, bring to 2,136 the number of migrants rescued since LÉ Eithne was deployed on the EU-led humanitarian mission on May 23.

In total, 519 migrants were rescued in yesterday’s operations which started when LÉ Eithne came upon a dinghy crammed with 104 people north-west of Tripoli.

The ship’s crew started to transfer them back to LÉ Eithne at 5.16am and completed the task by 6.31am.

Within minutes of completing that the naval vessel was sent to a barge which had a further 362 migrants onboard. It commenced rescuing them at 7.18am, completing the task three hours later.

LÉ EITHNE rescues 519 Migrants from three vessels 50 Nautical Miles North West of Tripoli #DefendProtectSupport pic.twitter.com/gEDx9yYjoV

— Óglaigh na hÉireann (@defenceforces) June 22, 2015

An hour after that LÉ Eithne took onboard a further 53 migrants who were in a small fibreglass boat. That rescue took 1 hour and 40 minutes to complete.

In total the flagship, which was only supposed to hold 400 migrants at any one time, now had 519 onboard: 401 men, 98 women and 20 children.

Sailors are working around the clock to deal with the migrants, rescuing them and providing first aid, food and water.

It was expected last night that she would be tasked by the Italian authorities to take the migrants to a safe port for disembarkation.