An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 19 down. Conscious of a risk of IEDs or small-arms fire from hostiles, rescue personnel approaching a migrant craft were covered by the mother-ship. People taken onboard were treated with courtesy and compassion, fed, given water and medical attention. They were also searched, segregated, placed in secure areas of the ship and watched over by armed sentries, both for their own safety and that of the ship; there could be no risk of the crew being overrun by hostile or excitable elements among the hundreds taken onboard. LÉ Niamh had effected eight rescues by 27th July 2015 when she experienced the type of tragedy that had brought about the mission in the first place. When a wooden boat, packed with 500 people, was approached some of the occupants jumped into the water, shouting that several onboard had died. Rescue teams started retrieving those in the water before taking the remainder off the crammed boat. Darkness fell before they turned their attention to recovering bodies from the migrants' boat. Using torches, the NS personnel worked in the darkness and filth, recovering 14 bodies of people who had most likely died from suffocation and heat exhaustion, crushed under the weight of others. Despite transferring a large number of survivors to MV Dignity 1, OC LÉ Niamh was still faced with the responsibility of bringing hun- dreds of living, and 14 dead, to Sicily. Unsure if the families of the de- ceased were onboard, or how they might react, and concerned about the safety of his ship and crew, the captain set sail, little suspecting that on the next rescue their experiences would get much worse. Four Italian navy frigates provided force protection. However, they were thinly spread over the enormous AO and could only provide protec- tion to units actively engaged in a rescue. When on routine patrol, vessels looked to their own defence. LÉ Niamh's bridge team was beefed up with the appointment of a Ship Protection Officer; not a job typically required in our home wa- ters. Guns were kept in a state of readiness and lookouts remained vigilant. On 5th August, LÉ Niamh was tasked by the MRCC to investigate a contact very close to Libya's 12nm limit, the AO boundary. The captain proceeded with care and locating, from a distance, what looked like a fishing vessel rather than a typical migrant barge. The MRCC requested a closer inspection, advising that around 800 migrants were reportedly in distress on a vessel in the area. Reluctant to move inside Libyan waters without suitable force pro- tection, the captain sought cover from the Italian navy but because a rescue had not yet been declared this was not available. If he were to do nothing, possibly 800 people could drown, but if he were to advance he would be exposing his ship to the possibility of hostile fire (not a remote possibility, as a Turkish merchant ship had recently been damaged by Libyan artillery fire). The captain had to balance the danger of entering Libyan waters against the requirement to rescue people in distress. With lives at stake, he decided to approach the vessel. As LÉ Niamh closed, she was able to confirm it was indeed a fish- ing vessel, but one packed to the brim with human cargo. LÉ Niamh launched her rescue boats from over a mile away, following them in towards the vessel. Suddenly, the migrants' boat capsized due to its over packed upper decks, and sank in less than 30 seconds. LÉ Niamh surged forward as hundreds of splashing, crying men, women and children filled the water. The captain ordered the ship's extra life rafts to be deployed and also directed his boats to throw lifejackets to the struggling survivors. Two naval divers volunteered to enter the water and help those nearest the ship into life rafts. Aware of the danger from LÉ Niamh's powerful propeller race, the captain declutched the engines, even though this was a gamble as a ship without propulsion is highly vulnerable. Then the Ship Protection Officer, sticking to his post amid considerable distraction, reported a fast-moving contact approaching from the blind side. In no mood for further trouble, the captain ordered his comms staff to warn the approaching vessel to alter course. As it continued to ap- proach, the warnings from LÉ Niamh continued to escalate, while her crew continued their rescue and recovery. After a few tense minutes the unknown vessel altered course, making no move to communicate or assist, but heading towards Zuwareh on the Libyan coast. MSF Dignity 1 and Italian naval ship ITS Sirio arrived to take some of the burden, and the frigate ITS Mimbelli sent a helicopter to assist by dropping floatation devices. Eventually, LÉ Niamh accounted for 365 exhausted survivors, strewn on her upper decks receiving care. As they were transported to Palermo the survivors told of their terror as their overloaded, un- suitable vessel had started to sink, shortly after setting out, and how, when they protested, they were beaten with sticks and hooks and some were locked in the vessel's hold. While the numbers cannot be confirmed, if the MRCC's initial estimate was accurate then the death toll would be in the region of 300 people, many of whom were locked inside the sunken vessel. LÉ Niamh was relieved by LÉ Samuel Beckett, which continued the fine work of its predecessors. LÉ Róisín is cur- rently deployed since 2nd May 2016. In all, the Naval Service has rescued 8,500 persons and provided them with medical aid, safety and comfort. If those people had been left to drown, what difference it would have made in the face of the enormous migrant crisis is unknown, but it surely would have been a betrayal of the soul of a modern European island country, which has had its own fill of national tragedy and forced emigration.

• Cover