Topline
At least 73 people were killed when a boat carrying Lebanese and Syrian migrants to Europe sank in the Mediterranean Sea Thursday, Syrian officials announced on state TV Friday morning—one of the deadliest recorded migrations from the country as Lebanon’s economic crisis continues to unfold.
A ship carrying Lebanese and Syrian migrants crashed, killing 73, state officials announced Friday.
Key Facts
At least 20 people on board were recovered as of Thursday and are being treated at Syrian hospitals, while search efforts continue to find any other migrants, according to the Turkish Outlet Anadolu Agency.
In response to the crash, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked Army Commander General Joseph Aoun for “strictness” in monitoring the Lebanese shores to “combat the issue of illegal immigration trips” including by arresting anyone who organizes them, Lebanese transport minister Ali Hamiye tweeted.
Posts on social media showed Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian people waiting at the border of Lebanon and Syria, just miles from the crash, for the bodies to arrive and be identified.
The boat left from Lebanon’s northern Minyeh region on Tuesday, carrying between 120 and 150 people, Syrian officials told Al Jazeera.
The crash is the latest example of a deadly passage through the Mediterranean Sea, following a crash in April that killed one while 48 others were injured after leaving Lebanon, as residents grapple with economic and social unrest.
Key Background
Lebanese people have been joining Syrians in escaping the region in recent years, as the country’s economy—once referred to as the Switzerland of the Middle East—collapses. Meanwhile, deadly crashes have been adding up. One crash in March left 70 dead or missing off the coast of Libya, while a capsized boat off Greece left 34 dead, a crash in 2019 killed nine from the Turkish coast and some 37 more migrants died in a Mediterranean crossing from Turkey to Greece in 2016. Protests in Lebanon began in October 2019 after government officials announced a plan to tax WhatsApp calls, while the country faced a growing national debt and rising unemployment rates. Data from the World Bank shows the country’s unemployment rate rose from 10.8% in 2018, before the protests, to 13.3% in 2020, and 14.5% last year. The Lebanese currency sank from 1,500 to the U.S. dollar before the financial crisis to 34,000 to the dollar in January, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, social unrest and civil war have caused Syrians to flee their country at high numbers for over a decade. residents to flee even earlier. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, more than 6.8 million Syrian migrants have fled the country since 2011, while 6.9 million more remain displaced. Most of those refugees have moved to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Germany, which has taken more than 620,000 Syrian refugees.
Big Number
1,700. That’s how many migrants have died or disappeared in the eastern Mediterranean since 2014, according to the Missing Migrants Project, some of the 24,650 reported missing in the Mediterranean since 2014.
Further Reading
Scores dead in worst sinking of migrant boat from Lebanon in recent years (The Guardian)
Families mourn as at least 71 die on Lebanon migrant boat (Reuters)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/09/23/at-least-73-dead-as-migrant-boat-from-lebanon-sinks/