Posted in: 23/04/2022 – 22:36Last updated: 23/04/2022 – 22:35
Beirut (AFP) – A boat carrying regarding sixty people sank Saturday off the coast of northern Lebanon, according to the Red Cross.
“A boat sank with regarding 60 people on board. The Lebanese Red Cross sent 7 ambulances to the port of Tripoli” in the north of the country, the Red Cross said in a statement in Arabic.
It was not immediately clear what happened to the passengers.
The Red Cross did not specify whether they were migrants trying to leave the country irregularly.
Lebanon, with a population of nearly six million, is suffering an unprecedented financial crisis, which the World Bank says is on a scale usually witnessed by countries living in wars.
The lira has lost more than 90 percent of its purchasing value and the majority of the population lives below the poverty line.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says that at least 1,570 people, including 186 Lebanese, left Lebanon or attempted to leave irregularly by sea between January and November 2021.
Most of the irregular migrants head to the island of Cyprus, a member of the European Union, which is 175 km from the coast of Lebanon.
The number of these migrants in 2019 reached regarding 270, including 40 Lebanese.
Most of those trying to leave Lebanon by sea are Syrian refugees, but the number of Lebanese among them is increasing.
© 2022 AFP
