In late July 2015 Paolo Pellegrin boarded an MSF (Doctors Without Borders) ship tasked with intercepting migrant-packed vessels originating from Libya, bound for Europe.
Eritrean migrants, who were rescued at sea by this ship, the Bourbon Argos, were offloaded and then transported to Reggio Calabria, Italy. The Bourbon Argos was patrolling the waters off of Libya when it encountered two wooden boats carrying a total of nearly 700 migrants, according to MSF. The migrants reported that a third boat left Libya with them, but it could not be located by MSF. It was reported to have been rescued the following day by an Irish ship, but with casualties.