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Over the weekend, two vessels deployed by Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, joined the Italian authorities and other vessels to jointly rescue some 5 900 migrants near the Libyan coast.

Among the vessels deployed by Frontex was Norwegian Siem Pilot, which took aboard 1 099 persons rescued in several operations. This was the highest number of people ever carried by the Norwegian boat since it joined Frontex-coordinated Operation Triton in June 2015.

The figure increased to 1 100 on Sunday morning after one of the rescued migrants gave birth to a baby boy. The child and his mother, along with a family with two small children, were evacuated to a hospital on the island of Lampedusa by the Italian Coast Guard.

“The dramatic rescue operations over the last couple of days tested our crew as never before,” said Siem Pilot commander Pal Erik Teigen. “They acted with utmost professionalism as they tolled for long hours in the middle of the night to rescue hundreds of people in need.”

Siem Pilot was near full capacity with migrants when the Norwegian vessel spotted more rubber boats with migrants nearby. During the rescue operation, 24 migrants jumped into the water and started to swim towards Siem Pilot. All were thrown life jackets by the Norwegian crew.

 “It was important to stop more migrants from jumping into the water. This would have been very dangerous. We managed to pull everybody out and transfer them safely to a nearby tanker Okyroe. Thankfully nobody died during this rescue operation,” Teigen said.

Siem Pilot provided 900 portions of food and water to the oil tanker, which was not prepared for such an emergency. Throughout the night, Siem Pilot motorboats continued to carry migrants from other ships in the area to Okyroe.

Siem Pilot reached Palermo on Monday morning. Along with the rescued migrants, it also brought 17 dead bodies. The bodies were recovered from NGO vessels Sea Watch 2 and Dignity 1 and two rubber boats.

Spanish offshore patrol vessel Rio Seguro, also taking part in Operation Triton, assisted in the rescue of 564 migrants.