Syrian state television said on Saturday that the death toll from the sinking boat carrying migrants near the northern port city of Tartus, which is suspected of having sailed from northern Lebanon towards Europe, has risen to 86.
According to other media reports, 86 people died in the disaster of the sinking of a boat carrying illegal immigrants off the Syrian coast, according to the Syrian official media, Saturday, in a new toll.
The death toll has risen successively since the announcement of the sinking of the boat Thursday afternoon. It is also the highest since the beginning of the phenomenon of illegal immigration from Lebanon, which is mired in its crises.
On Thursday, the Syrian authorities found dozens of bodies off the coastal city of Tartus, while only twenty people were rescued from the boat that sailed a few days ago from northern Lebanon. Estimates of the number of its passengers ranged between 100 and 150 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian refugees, without being clear yet. the circumstances of his drowning.
The Director General of Seaports, Samer Kobrly, told the official Syrian News Agency (SANA) that the death toll from the boat had risen to 86.
The latest death toll announced by the Syrian Ministry of Health on Friday was 77. Searches for missing persons are still continuing.
Only 20 survivors were transferred to a hospital in Tartous. Most of the victims were found off the island of Arwad and the shores of Tartus.
Families in Lebanon mourned their victims on Friday, and Lebanese and Palestinian families received the bodies of their relatives in the evening through the Arida border crossing, to be buried on Saturday.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced that ten children were killed in the accident, according to initial reports. And she considered in a statement that "as is the case in many areas in the region, people in Lebanon live in harsh conditions that affect everyone, but are especially harsh for the weakest."
In turn, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said in a statement, "This is another painful tragedy," calling on the international community to provide full assistance to "improve conditions for forcibly displaced people and host communities in the Middle East."
"Many are pushing them to the edge of the abyss," he added in a statement with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and the International Organization for Migration.
"People seeking safety should not find themselves forced to undertake dangerous and deadly migration journeys," said IOM Director-General Antonio Vitorino.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philip Lazzarini said, "No one gets on the boats of death easily. People make these dangerous decisions, risking their lives in search of a life of dignity."
"We must do more (...) to address the sense of despair in Lebanon and the region," he added.
Illegal immigration is not a new phenomenon in Lebanon, which served as a springboard for refugees, especially Syrians and Palestinians, towards the European Union. However, its pace increased in light of the economic collapse that has afflicted the country for nearly three years, and which prompted many Lebanese to risk their lives in search of new beginnings.
Source: agencies