President Aoun calls for fighting illegal immigration in Lebanon

Beirut: Lebanese President Michel Aoun called on Thursday to address the issue of people leaving Lebanese lands by sea illegally, from both security and humanitarian angles.
Aoun highlighted, during his presidency of a security meeting in the presence of Acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab, today, “the need to address the social reasons that lead these people to leave Lebanon through illegal means, which exposed them to painful incidents. at sea that resulted in family tragedies in which several victims fell. Of different ages “.
The “National News Agency” said today that the meeting was dedicated to discussing “incidents of transportation of people in boats illegally from the Lebanese coast to Cyprus, after these accidents increased and there were victims of all ages.”
The meeting was informed of the reports available to the military and security agencies and the means to control these violations.
According to the agency, the meeting decided to assign the General Directorate of Public Security to communicate with the Cypriot authorities to put in place the necessary procedures for the recovery of migrants and intensify intelligence and investigation work to discover networks that work for illicit trafficking. of people.
It was also decided to intensify maritime patrols within available capacities and coordinate with the leadership of “UNIFIL” to detect and monitor vessels, and establish a cooperation framework in this regard.
The meeting ordered the army leadership to work to establish a special search and rescue center.The meeting also discussed the prison conditions, especially after the appearance of Coronavirus cases in several of them, and it was decided to hold a meeting to discuss the problem the overcrowding in prisons and the spread of Corona among several prisoners.
(Dpa)