On Saturday, two migrants perished when their boat capsized off the northern coast of Lebanon, from which an increasing number of people are making the perilous journey to escape a failing economy. Another 200 people were rescued.
Men, women, and children were on board the ship when it ran into trouble, according to an AFP correspondent in the impoverished port city of Tripoli. Most of the passengers were Syrian refugees, but there were also about 50 Lebanese.
The army posted on Twitter, “Three naval ships, along with another from UNIFIL (the UN force in Lebanon), arrived at the spot… off Selaata and personnel saved about 200 persons.”
Two fatalities were reported in a different tweet.
Earlier, the army claimed that a naval patrol had been sent to save the passengers trying to “illegally exit Lebanese waters” on the ship.
UNIFIL said on Twitter that it was helping the Lebanese Navy with a “search and rescue operation at sea between Beirut and Tripoli with a boat in distress with a big number of persons on board”
Numerous family members of those who were saved poured into Tripoli port to wait for their arrival on land, according to a correspondent with AFP.
The World Bank has ranked Lebanon’s economic crisis as one of the worst in modern history. Additionally, the nation is home to over a million Syrian refugees fleeing the ongoing war.
Previously only used as a jumping off point for foreign migrants, Lebanon’s own inhabitants are now joining the Syrian and Palestinian refugees who are clamoring to go via perilous sea routes after nearly three years of economic collapse.
‘We can no longer survive in this country — in Syria,’ declared Younes Jomaa, an Idlib-born Syrian and the brother of one of the migrants who made it out alive.
They are among the millions of people displaced by Syria’s turmoil over more than ten years.
According to Jomaa, who said that his brother had taken on debt to pay for his journey, “I had planned to go with my brother, but was unable to gather enough money together.”
One of the bloodiest such incidents occurred in late September when over 100 migrants perished when their boat capsized off the coast of Syria after leaving Lebanon.
One of the main destinations for migrants leaving Lebanon is Cyprus, which is barely 175 kilometers (110 miles) away.
According to the UNHCR, between January and November 2021, at least 1,570 people, including 186 Lebanese citizens, set out on unauthorized sea voyages from Lebanon.
