Migrants dream of a better life in European countries, in the hope of obtaining asylum and being able to improve their living conditions, are frequent incidents of sinking boats.
The recurrence of these incidents raises questions about the psychological state of these migrants, and the ways to address this phenomenon, which claims thousands of lives annually.
In the latest example of the sinking of these boats, the death toll from the sinking of a boat carrying illegal immigrants off the Syrian coast has risen to 73, according to what the Syrian Ministry of Health announced on Friday, the highest toll since the beginning of the phenomenon of illegal immigration from Lebanon, which is mired in crises.
The boat carrying migrants from Lebanon sank off the coast of Syria on Thursday afternoon.
The incident is the latest this year, while the multiple crises are pushing the Lebanese to flee the three-year economic collapse in their country, where tens of thousands have lost their jobs and the value of the Lebanese pound has depreciated by more than 90 percent, which led to the elimination of the purchasing power of thousands of families who now live. in extreme poverty.
Adventure
A specialist in psychology, Dr. Rima Bejjani, on the “character of migrants taking an adventure” riding the sea through smugglers’ boats.
In her interview with Al-Hurra website, Bejjani said that “the dire economic situation that migrants are going through is pushing them to search for a better place to live,” and described the way some people think about using illegal boats as “unsound.”
She explained that “when a person goes through a state of oppression and considers that his rights do not reach him, he feels frustration, anxiety and emotions that may push him to take a great risk.”
Boats that are not safe from drowning
According to Islamic law, the soul and body are considered a “trust”, and killing oneself (suicide) is considered a taboo, according to the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments in the UAE.
One of the commission’s muftis said, during a call with the “Al-Hurra” website, that “riding the sea in these boats, from which drowning is not safe, is not permissible, and it is forbidden.”
The Mufti stressed that “it is not permissible to board these boats for several reasons, firstly, that the passenger exposes himself to drowning, and that is killing the soul that is in trust with him and must be preserved, and secondly also that he is traveling to a country that did not authorize him to travel.”
According to the sources of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “the boat set off on the morning of Tuesday, September 20, from the Minya port in Tripoli, north Lebanon, towards the Greek island of Cyprus, with 120-150 people on board, of Lebanese, Syrians and other nationalities, who were on their way to the European Union, but He drowned near the Syrian island of Arwad.
Thousands of Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians have left Lebanon on boats over the past months in search of a better life in Europe, according to the Associated Press.
Lebanon, with a population of 6 million people – including one million Syrian refugees, has been suffering a severe economic collapse since late 2019, pushing more than three-quarters of its population into poverty.
solutions
In the context of talking about the appropriate ways to persuade migrants to reverse their decision, and solutions to address this phenomenon, Bejjani says that “two main groups must be dealt with in this regard.”
The specialist explained that “the first category are the smugglers who cheat people’s money and promise them to reach the desired goal in Europe, and the second category are the migrants themselves.”
She said, “The role of smugglers is very big, and they take advantage of the migrants’ need to earn money from them.
She added, “Smugglers are a scourge, and the damage they cause has become too great.”
At the end of her speech, Bejani stressed the need to tighten penalties for smugglers, and said that their danger lies in the fact that they persuade reluctant people to migrate through illegal and unsafe ways.
In the context of combating human smuggling from Lebanon by sea by irregular means, the Lebanese Army Command announced, on Friday, that a patrol of the Intelligence Directorate in the city of Tripoli in the port area in northern Lebanon had arrested four citizens suspected of having a history of smuggling operations and also because they were trying to buy a boat to carry out an operation later. Smuggling people illegally across the sea and they were caught in possession of a military pistol.
Another patrol from the Directorate in the “Deir Ammar” area near Tripoli arrested four other citizens on suspicion of smuggling by sea and monitoring the naval forces’ patrols. The seizures were handed over and investigations with the detainees were launched under the supervision of the competent judiciary.