77 dead as Lebanon boat carrying migrants sinks

Arida Border Crossing (Lebanon): The sinking off the coast of Syria of a boat carrying migrants from Lebanon has killed 77 people, Syria’s health minister said Friday amid fears that the toll in the disaster this week may be far higher. The incident was deadliest so far as a surging number of Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians have been trying to flee crisis-hit Lebanon by sea for a better future in Europe. Tens of thousands have lost their jobs while the Lebanese pound has dropped more than 90 per cent in value, eradicating the purchasing power of thousands of families that now live in extreme poverty.

Syrian authorities said victims’ relatives have started crossing from Lebanon into Syria to help identify their loved ones and retrieve their bodies. The vessel left Lebanon Tuesday and news of what happened first started to emerge Thursday afternoon. The boat was carrying Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinians.

Syrian state-run TV quoted Health Minister Mohammed Hassan Ghabbash as saying 20 people were rescued and were being treated at al-Basel hospital in Syria’s coastal city of Tartus. He added that medical authorities have been on alert since Thursday afternoon to help in the search operations. An official at al-Basel, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations, told this agency that eight of those rescued were in intensive care.

The official also confirmed the 77 deaths. Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamie said the survivors included 12 Syrians, five Lebanese and three Palestinians. Eight bodies have been brought back to Lebanon, according to Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, and more were expected back later Friday.

Earlier in the day, Tartus governor Abdul-Halim Khalil told the pro-government ‘Sham FM Radio’ that the search was underway for more bodies off his country’s coast. Khalil said the boat sank Wednesday. Syria’s state news agency, SANA, quoted a port official as saying that 31 bodies were washed ashore while the rest were picked up by Syrian boats in a search operation that started Thursday evening.

Wissam Tellawi, one of the survivors being treated at al-Basel, lost two daughters. His wife and two sons are still missing. The bodies of his daughters, Mae and Maya, were brought to Lebanon early Friday and buried in their northern hometown of Qarqaf.

“He told me by telephone, ‘I am fine but the children are lost’,” said Tellawi’s father, who identified himself as Abu Mahmoud. The father told the local Al-Jadeed TV that his son gave smugglers the family’s apartment in return for taking him and his family to Europe. In the aftermath of the disaster, the Lebanese army said troops stormed Friday the homes of several suspected smugglers, detaining four in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest and most impoverished.

Three others were detained in the nearby village of Deir Ammar. The military said the suspects were involved in smuggling of migrants by sea while others were planning to buy boats for the same reason. Lebanon,— with a population of six million, including one million Syrian refugees, has been in the grips of a severe economic meltdown since late 2019 that has pulled over three-quarters of the population into poverty.

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