The Naval Service patrol ship LÉ Niamh is due into the Sicilian port of Messina this morning with the bodies of 14 migrants, along with 453 people rescued from overcrowded trafficking vessels in the Mediterranean.
The 14 migrants are believed to have died of crushing and asphyxiation after they were herded with more than 500 others on board a wooden barge that left Libya in the early hours of Monday.
Their bodies were discovered below deck by the crew of the LÉ Niamh on Monday evening after it had taken 210 people, including 35 children, from the barge some 80km northwest of Libya, and had transferred another 312 people to the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) vessel Dignity 1.
The overcrowding was the worst that the Naval Service Mediterranean humanitarian rescue mission had experienced, Naval Service spokesman Capt Dave Barry said, and it showed a "complete disregard for any form of safety and care by those involved in trafficking".
It is the first time since the Naval Service began its missions in the Mediterranean this summer that it has encountered fatalities.
MSF field co-ordinator Juan Gill, on board Dignity 1, said that it was a "very distressing situation", and those who died may have been forced to travel below deck as they had paid lower fares.
"We are being told migrants are paying different prices, with people from the Maghreb countries able to afford up to €2,000 for being on deck, while those from sub-Saharan Africa paying around €1,000 are sent below. While there is nothing we can ratify, we have noticed from previous rescues that those migrants who have no possessions, not even a T-shirt, are below, while those who are on the deck may have a bag and a mobile phone," Mr Gill said.
The rescue crews heard about casualties from survivors, and darkness had fallen by the time the search of the barge was undertaken by the Naval Service team.
The fatalities, mainly male, were transferred to the LÉ Niamh and placed in body bags in a temporary morgue.
