'We saved thousands, covered the shivering... and counted the dead':

 Photographer’s heartbreaking stint on migrant rescue ship spent pulling people from the sea - including the dead

• Reuters journalist Darrin Zammit Lupi has been on the Phoenix, a migrant rescue ship, since April 1 this year
• On Easter weekend, he witnessed the most dramatic scenes in 19 years covering migrant ships and rescues
• He saw people falling overboard, desperate scrambles to pull them from the water and some tragic deaths 
• 'I've never experienced anything remotely close to what this Easter holiday weekend has been like,' he said 

  

Two mothers lean up against the metal on board the Phoenix as tired-looking children cling onto them on their way to Italy

A photographer has put pen to paper revealing his heartbreaking stint on a  migrant rescue ship spent saving drowning people and pulling corpses from the sea.

Reuters journalist Darrin Zammit Lupi has been on board the Phoenix, operated by Malta-based MOAS, in the Mediterranean, since April 1.

This past weekend, while people around the world celebrated Easter, he witnessed some of the most dramatic scenes of his career. 

Below is his account of his experience. 

An outstretched arm reaches towards the camera lens of Reuters journalist Darrin Zammit Lupi, who has been on the Phoenix, a migrant rescue ship in the Mediterranean operated by Malta-based MOAS, since April 1. This past weekend, while people around the world celebrated Easter, he witnessed some of the most dramatic scenes of his career

Two mothers lean up against the metal on board the Phoenix as tired-looking children cling onto them on their way to Italy

A mother holding what appears to be a bottle of milk smiles in a life jacket as she clings onto her baby, who is wrapped in a yellow and grey coat-come-sack. Talking of the two, Darrin Zammit Lupi said: '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.'

A massive group of migrants piled onto a tiny vessel about to fall off their rubber dinghy during a rescue operation in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. All 134 sub-Saharan migrants survived and were rescued by MOAS 

A little girl cries as two rescue workers help take her to safety from a wooden boat in the central Mediterranean 

The body of a dead migrant is carried off the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship Phoenix after it arrived with migrants and bodies on board, in Augusta, Italy on April 19, 2017

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 Phoenix, one of the rescue ships plying the waters of the southern Mediterranean trying to make the sea less of a cemetery.

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.

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.

Through my lens I saw two people going under. 

One stretched out a hand towards me from about 4 metres away. 

The rescuers jumped in and saved both. I put down my cameras and helped pull some on board.

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.

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.

A migrant baby wearing a blue top and trousers is carried from wooden boat in the central Mediterranean off the coast of Libya 

Tears stream down a child stands up on the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship Phoenix after being rescued off the Libyan coast

As a group of migrants tip on top of a floating dinghy in the Mediterrenean Sea, other men panic as they attempt to reach the rescue boat where charity workers are waiting to save them

A tiny baby in a red baby-grow is handed to its mother, who is holding a bottle of milk with a pink handle, having been rescued off the coast of Libya

A migrant child is lifted onto the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship Phoenix during a rescue operation from a wooden boat in the central Mediterranean in international waters off the coast of Sabratha in Libya on April 15

A group of people collapsed in a heap as they rest up on the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship Phoenix after being rescued in the central Mediterranean off the Libyan coast, as the ship makes its way towards Italy on April 17

Rescue non-government organisations Sea-Eye and the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) carry out a joint rescue operation as some 20 migrants on a rubber dinghy drowned in the central Mediterranean in international waters off the coast of Libya, on April 16, 2017

Migrants celebrate with their arms aloft on a wooden boat as they wait to be rescued by the rescue by the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS)

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.

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.

On Easter Sunday, although overloaded with 450 migrants, we headed to the scene of another rescue operation. 

A child wraps his arms around the head of his father. Both are all smiles after being rescued as they sit under a foil blanket aimed at keeping them warm

A child rests on the Phoenix after being rescued from a wooden boat in the central Mediterranean in international waters off the coast of Sabratha in Libya on April 15

A woman leans on a friend on the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship Phoenix after being rescued from a rubber dinghy in the central Mediterranean in international waters some 15 nautical miles off the coast of Zawiya in Libya on April 14

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Migrants on wooden boats and rubber dinghies wait to be rescued by the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) in the central Mediterranean in international waters off the coast of Sabratha in Libya, on April 15

A rescued migrant climbs down from a Tunisian fishing vessel onto a rigid hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) of the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) to be taken to the Dutch rescue ship Sea-Eye, after some 20 migrants on a rubber dinghy drowned in the central Mediterranean in international waters off the coast of Libya

A man wearing a Barcelona football shirt with Neymar Jr's name on the back climbs down from a Tunisian fishing boat to be taken to a rescue ship

Dozens of sleeping people huddle together on a packed deck on board the Phoenix as they are taken towards the island of Sicily 

A migrant reaches out for an emergency food ration block which has been thrown in his direction on board the Phoenix

A group of migrants dangle their feet over the edge of their rubber dinghy off the coast of Libya as they wait barefoot to be rescued

The frightening sight of migrants in a rubber d inghy hang on to ropes beneath the bow of the Panama-registered ship Tuna 1, after some 20 migrants on another rubber dinghy drowned in the central Mediterranean in international waters off the coast of Libya

A man wearing a red polo shirt with a blanket draped over his shoulders waits to disembark as a coffin with the body of a dead comrade is carried to a hearse after being brought off the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship Phoenix, after it arrived with migrants and bodies on board, in Augusta, Italy