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Displaying items by tag: Refugee Rescues off Libya

#BeckettRescues- Following yesterday's rescue by LÉ Samuel Beckett and in the transfer off 99 people to MSF Dignity 1 off Tripoli, Libra, the OPV was involved today in further humanitarian missions in the Mediterranean Sea.

This brings to a total of three consecutive days that the Naval Service has successfully carried out search and rescue (SAR) operations off the failed North Africa state.

At 4.10 am Irish time today, the LÉ Samuel Beckett located an un-seaworthy craft carrying 108* people 60 kilometres east north east of Tripoli. The LÉ Samuel Beckett was appointed on scene coordinator and using their rigid hull inflatable boats (rhibs) transferred the 108 people to the MV Bourbon Argos.

Upon completion at 7.20 am the LÉ Samuel Beckett located another vessel brought 119* persons on board from a rubber craft.

On Wednesday, at 8.15 am Irish time, the LE Samuel Beckett was appointed on scene coordinator for SAR operations 87 kilometres east north east of Tripoli, Libya.

On this first SAR of the three days of operations, the OPV with assistance from the Italian ITN Aliseo and its helicopter assets directed the Medicins Sans Frontiére (MSF) vessel MV Dignity 1 which embarked 100 people, 27 of whom are women, 3 of whom are pregnant.

The LÉ Samuel Beckett is awaiting further direction for the Italian Marine Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC.)

*Figures for today's operation are provisional until confirmed by the Italian authorities.

So far the LÉ Samuel Beckett has directly rescued 661 people since it's deployment, excluding today's figures.

Previous to the LÉ Samuel Beckett's deployment to the Mediterranean with OPERATION PONTUS, the LÉ Eithne & LÉ Niamh rescued 7,397 people.

Published in Navy

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.