People smugglers back in action on calmer seas

Days of poor weather in the Mediterranean have lifted, with calmer seas prompting people smugglers back into action and leading to the Naval Service picking up more refugees packed into deathtrap vessels.

The crew of LÉ Samuel Beckett were called into action at 5am Irish time yesterday saving 52 men and 33 women in a 12-metre-long dinghy which was 56km north-east of the Libyan capital Tripoli.

A short time later the ship’s crew again launched Ribs (rigid inflatable boats) to a similar-sized dinghy, this time crammed with even more migrants. They brought a further 97 men, six children and 30 women, one of whom was heavily pregnant, back to the ship.