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From Lebanon to Cyprus … the death ships worry the authorities
90 citizens, young men, children and women, who had migrated illegally from the city’s port by sea to Greek Cyprus, returned to Tripoli and were immediately quarantined in the exhibition hotel designated for quarantine, under the supervision of the subcommittee in charge of managing the Corona crisis and quarantine centers in the north.
The committee’s secretary, District Commissioner Iman Al-Rafei, confirmed that “a pcr will be conducted for all returnees, and they will be quarantined until the results are announced, provided that all those who have obtained negative results return. home, while those with positive results, if any, will be quarantined until recovery. ” It will provide all the basic necessities of life and food for those in quarantine. “
From Lebanon to Cyprus … the death ships worry the authorities
In an article he had on Sky News Arabia, entitled: “From Lebanon to Cyprus … Death ships arouse the concern of the authorities,” his colleague Salman Andary wrote:
Some Lebanese have no choice but to take “death boats” and sail to Europe, after their livelihoods were cut back in the country.
All attempts by the Lebanese to improve their living conditions were unsuccessful, after they tried by all means on the street, on social media and on the ground, but some of them found a last way to escape the “focus of the failure “by sea, using ships to Europe.
And the last of these chapters was represented by a group of 33 people in the city of El-Mina in Tripoli, in the north of Lebanon, towards the sea to escape from Lebanon to the island of Cyprus, using a boat in coordination with a smuggler.
The information says that a large sum of money was raised to insure the ship after weeks of preparation for the migratory journey from Lebanon.
The ship left the port area in northern Lebanon for the coast of Cyprus, carrying 33 people, including 3 Syrians, 14 children and 6 women.
Photos of some young people inside a small boat were scattered in the sea under the title “The youth of El-Mina, Tripoli, are out of the homeland. Our youth migrate, oh immoral ruler.”
However, the escape trip was unsuccessful as the Cypriot authorities returned the migrants to Lebanon, accompanied by elements of the Cypriot coast guard.
Has the migration season to Cyprus started?
The Cypriot website stated on Monday that the Cypriot authorities have returned 33 migrants who arrived in Limassol on Saturday from Lebanon, and the police arrested 4 people who were among another group of 51 Syrian-Lebanese immigrants who were on board. of the ship, and are believed to be involved in human trafficking cases.
The ship, which was carrying 33 Lebanese and 3 Syrian immigrants, was seen off the coast of Limassol on Saturday, and after consulting with the Lebanese authorities, it was decided to return them to Lebanon.
Due to the poor condition of the ship, the Cypriot authorities rented a boat to transport 13 men, 6 women and 14 children to their countries after it was loaded with food.
The group was sent back to Lebanon, accompanied by nurses, an immigration translator and officers from the Cypriot coast guard.
The number of boats increases due to the crisis
And there were reports that two or more groups reached the coast of Cyprus in recent days from Lebanon, via small boats filled with illegal Lebanese and Syrian immigrants.
Earlier, a ship with 55 people on board arrived off the coast of Cyprus and, at another time, they were transferred to the immigration reception center in Cucinotremithia, Cyprus.
Some information indicates that some groups were seeking to reach Italy and not the Cypriot island, but the Cypriot authorities stopped the boats and prevented them from continuing due to their poor condition and the dangerousness of the trip.
Observers expect the number of people attempting to migrate by sea to rise in the coming days and months due to the political, economic and social crisis in Lebanon.
A Cypriot delegation to Lebanon to discuss the crisis
And Cypriot authorities announced on Monday night that they would send a delegation to Beirut this week to discuss ways to prevent ships laden with irregular migrants from sailing from the Lebanese coast to the Mediterranean island, which had intercepted an unprecedented number of these ships in the last days.
“Officials from various Cypriot agencies dealing with this issue will visit Lebanon within 48 hours to address this phenomenon in the best possible and most effective way,” said Cypriot Interior Minister Nikos Norris.
Official reports say that Cypriot authorities are on alert after they intercepted at least 5 boats carrying more than 150 migrants in recent days off the island’s coast.
On Monday, the Cyprus Interior Ministry held an emergency meeting to discuss the worsening crisis.
Losing hope
Large numbers of Lebanese lost hope of staying in the country, amid an unprecedented economic and social crisis, and after a massive explosion hit the port of the capital, Beirut, and their shrapnel spread across the country. .
Poverty rates increased, unemployment figures doubled, and more than 55 percent of the Lebanese population was below the poverty line.
Current figures and data indicate that Lebanon is on the brink of more social, economic and psychological disasters in the coming period.
Citizens who tried to move to Europe by sea say that corruption in Lebanon has pushed them to migrate in any way, by boat.
And they accuse the political authority of being fully responsible for what happened in Lebanon.
A black history of escape stories
The stories of the Lebanese who fled through the ships of death have a long history of “tragedies”. In 2013, dozens of Lebanese sank into the sea behind the rooms of an Indonesian ship smuggling hundreds of people from Indonesia to Australia, and dozens of Lebanese were killed in that incident, most of them from the northern region of the United States. Lebanon.
Smugglers play an important role in pushing people to flee across the sea after having obtained large sums of money in exchange for insuring ships or falsifying documents.
And in 2015, dozens of Lebanese joined the ships of death, which sailed from Turkey to Europe in light of the Syrian crisis, and dozens of them died before reaching the Turkish shores, while others managed to reach the other shore.
And recently, the port area in the northern city of Tripoli has become a starting point for dozens of ships to sail to Cyprus, and in recent years there have been several attempts by Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians to flee to Europe. .
Large numbers of Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians drowned in the sea during their illegal migration.
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