After a boat carrying around 60 migrants crashed off the coast of Lebanon, where fatal sea crossings have spiralled due to an economic crisis, at least six people perished, including a child, and 48 people were rescued.
“Army naval forces rescued 48 people and recovered the remains of a young child… from a boat that sank while attempting to unlawfully smuggle them out,” the army said in a statement on Sunday.
The army stated that “the majority of persons on board were rescued,” but did not indicate their nationalities.
The army retrieved five bodies off the coast of Tripoli on Sunday, according to the state-run National News Agency, only hours after a little girl’s body was returned to land.
The 10-metre (33-foot) boat, built in 1974, was designed to only accommodate six passengers, according to Haissam Dannaoui, the head of Lebanon’s naval forces, who said at a press conference on Sunday that it was crammed with nearly 60 would-be migrants and sent out to sea without any safety precautions.
According to Dannaoui, the army attempted to stop the smuggling operation before the ship sailed out of the Qalamoun region, south of Tripoli, but was unable to do so in time.
Two naval patrols attempted to force the migrant boat to turn back during the ensuing maritime chase.
“Unfortunately, the captain [of the migrant boat] decided to conduct out manoeuvres to flee,” according to Dannaoui, which resulted in the vessel colliding with the patrol ships.
According to him, the impact shattered the migrant boat’s hull, which rapidly submerged.
“The boat was under water in less than five seconds,” Dannaoui claimed, adding that passengers were swiftly given life jackets.
However, one of the survivors said that a naval ship purposely collided with the migrant boat in order to push it back.
The man told the AFP news agency at the port, “Tho patrol boat crashed into us twice… to drown us,” before being subdued and taken away by a swarm of survivors’ families.
In Tripoli, Lebanon’s second city and one of its poorest, the recent occurrence sparked popular outrage.
Tripoli has been a transit point for migrants due to rising poverty and unemployment rates.
Protests were called for outside Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Tripoli house on social media networks, after he designated Monday a day of national mourning to honour the victims.
Victims’ and missing persons’ relatives have spoken out against the country’s authorities.
Lebanon, a country of around six million people, is in the midst of an unparalleled financial catastrophe, according to the World Bank, on a magnitude typically associated with wars.
The country’s currency has lost nearly 90% of its purchasing power, and the bulk of the population lives in poverty.
Between January and November 2021, at least 1,570 persons, 186 of them were Lebanese, left or attempted to flee Lebanon by sea, according to the UN refugee agency.
