The Irish naval vessel LÉ William Butler Yeats on Sunday rescued 109 migrants off the coast of Tripoli, in its first search and rescue mission since deploying to the Mediterranean earlier this month.
Following a request from the Italian Maritime Rescue Co-Ordination Centre, the ship successfully located and rescued the people 56 nautical miles north east of Tripoli, a Defence Forces spokesman confirmed.
“The rescue commenced at 12.30pm and all migrants were on board by 4.30pm and are now receiving food, water and medical treatment where required,” he said.
The ship was due to transfer the rescued people to an Italian coast guard vessel later on Sunday and will conduct further search and rescue operations if required.
LÉ William Butler Yeats deployed to the Mediterranean July 14th as part of the Government's response to the migrant crisis in Europe.
It was commissioned in October last year at a ceremony in Galway.
Ahead of the ship's departure on its mission, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he did not agree with concerns expressed by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) about Ireland's participation in the European Union's Operation Sophia in the Mediterranean.
MSF, which has two ships involved in migrant rescue, had warned that Ireland’s shift from humanitarian to what it described as a “military focused” EU operation could “weaken dedicated search and rescue capacity”.
Mr Varadkar said the EU operation had a UN mandate and was supported by the Government and Dáil.
Operation Sophia, initiated by the EU in June 2015, has a core mandate of identifying, capturing and disposing of vessels and other “enabling assets” used or suspected of being used by migrant smugglers or traffickers.
It has already been engaged in training members of the Libyan coastguard and its aim is to build good relations with the Tripoli administration which would lead to an invitation into Libyan territorial waters to pursue smugglers.
Cabinet approval for Naval Service transition to the EU mission was secured by Minister of State for Defence Paul Kehoe early in July, and a motion was carried in the Dáil by 80 votes to 38 as part of the "triple lock" mechanism for approving Defence Force participation overseas.