Rescue on the Mediterranean

Rescue on the Mediterranean

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They were three days of suffering, death and, most importantly, hope. From Good Friday to Easter Sunday, I experienced those raw emotions aboard a migrant rescue ship.

We saved thousands of migrants, counted the dead, and covered the shivering. All in a day's work for the crew of the MOAS ship the Phoenix, one of the rescue vessels plying the waters of the southern Mediterranean trying to make the sea less of a cemetery.

. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

I started working on the migration story almost 19 years ago. In all this time, I've never experienced anything remotely close to what this Easter holiday weekend has been like.

From the Phoenix, rescuers use Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs) to reach rubber dinghies or rickety wooden boats packed with migrants, usually from sub-Saharan Africa.

. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

In one episode, on Good Friday, a group of migrants were issued with life jackets and lined up on the edge of their dinghy, ready to transfer to an RHIB. Suddenly one of them slipped and fell into the sea, taking 10 others with him.

. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

Through my lens I saw two people going under. One stretched out a hand towards me from about 4 metres (yards) away. The rescuers jumped in and saved both. I put down my cameras and helped pull some on board.

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Slideshow

Migrants on wooden boats and rubber dinghies await rescue.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

Migrants on wooden boats and rubber dinghies await rescue.

Rescuers help migrants.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

Rescuers help migrants.

A migrant child cries after being rescued from a wooden boat.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

A migrant child cries after being rescued from a wooden boat.

Migrants rest on the deck of the MOAS ship Phoenix.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

Migrants rest on the deck of the MOAS ship Phoenix.

A Libyan coast guard vessel (R) intercepts suspected migrant smugglers.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

A Libyan coast guard vessel (R) intercepts suspected migrant smugglers.

A rubber dinghy is burnt and sunk after the migrants were rescued.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

A rubber dinghy is burnt and sunk after the migrants were rescued.

A migrant hands a baby from a wooden boat to a rescuer.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

A migrant hands a baby from a wooden boat to a rescuer.

An unconscious migrant is brought to the MOAS ship.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

An unconscious migrant is brought to the MOAS ship.

Medical staff tend to ill migrants.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

Medical staff tend to ill migrants.

Migrants rest aboard the MOAS ship Phoenix.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

Migrants rest aboard the MOAS ship Phoenix.

Migrants in a rubber dinghy hang on to ropes beneath the bow of the Panama-registered ship Tuna 1.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

Migrants in a rubber dinghy hang on to ropes beneath the bow of the Panama-registered ship Tuna 1.

Migrants in a rubber dinghy fall into the sea alongside a rigid hulled inflatable boat as a migrant climbs to the anchor and one hangs onto its bow.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

Migrants in a rubber dinghy fall into the sea alongside a rigid hulled inflatable boat as a migrant climbs to the anchor and one hangs onto its bow.

A rescued migrant climbs down from a Tunisian fishing vessel onto a rigid hulled inflatable boat.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

A rescued migrant climbs down from a Tunisian fishing vessel onto a rigid hulled inflatable boat.

A dead migrant lies in a rigid hulled inflatable boat of the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

A dead migrant lies in a rigid hulled inflatable boat of the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station.

A rescued migrant climbs down from a Tunisian fishing vessel onto a rigid hulled inflatable boat.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

A rescued migrant climbs down from a Tunisian fishing vessel onto a rigid hulled inflatable boat.

A migrant reacts after being pulled out of the sea.
. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

A migrant reacts after being pulled out of the sea.

The next day was intense in a different way.

Hundreds more people were taken on from rubber dinghies that surrounded the Phoenix, seeming at times like black beads of a large floating rosary.

. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

By nightfall, Phoenix was already packed to capacity but we had to take another 70 people off one of the boats because it risked going under.

It was all hands on deck at this point. No time for photos. Cameras down, I was assigned to the rescue zone/embarkation doorway.

One crew member called it the "doorway to life". Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta called the "Door of Mercy", when he visited the ship before we set sail.

. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

My job was to clasp the hands of migrants who were on the rescue RHIBs and pull them up onto the Phoenix. I spent much of the rest of the night helping keep an eye on the new arrivals out on the bow, which is very rarely used for migrants as it's highly exposed to wind and water.

. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

On Easter Sunday, although overloaded with 450 migrants, we headed to the scene of another rescue operation. We passed several empty life jackets and one dead migrant floating face down in the water. We would have to try and retrieve the body later. We needed to concentrate on the living.

. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi
A Spanish military aircraft flies overhead as rescue NGOs Sea-Eye, Migrant Offshore Aid Station and Jugend Rettet Iuventa, and a Tunisian fishing boat carry out a joint rescue.

At the scene, we helped the rescuers of another NGO ship, the Sea-Eye, take bodies off a flooded dinghy. Those migrants had died waiting to be rescued. I covered the face of a dead woman with a discarded shirt and said a silent prayer.

. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

We took on seven bodies. Others may still be out there.

As we sail towards Sicily to bring our human cargo to dry land, we are moving slowly. We are overloaded. The sea is not merciful today. If we move any faster, waves will break over the migrants, huddled and exhausted, on the bow.

. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

For many, Easter Monday is a day of hope. For me, that hope was incarnated in the smile of a Somali mother when we rescued her and her 12-day-old baby.

. Mediterranean Sea, Mid-Sea. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi