Lebanese General Security Assignment to Communicate with Cyprus to Recover Migrants

The Lebanese authorities have imagined addressing the issue of migrants who resort to “death boats” to leave Lebanese territory illegally “from two security and humanitarian angles,” as announced yesterday by Lebanese President Michel Aoun, in response to preparations in northern Lebanon to resume this activity “to escape the social and economic crises that afflict the region.
The security meeting, which was chaired by Aoun and in the presence of Acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab, was devoted to discussing “incidents of illegal transport of people by boat from the Lebanese coast to Cyprus, after these incidents increased and there were victims of all ages”.
And it was decided to assign the General Directorate of Public Security to communicate with the Cypriot authorities to establish the necessary procedures for the recovery of migrants and intensify the intelligence and investigation work to discover networks that work for the smuggling of persons. 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 framework for cooperation in this regard. And the army command assigned work to establish a special search and rescue center, to be carried out in cooperation with the relevant ministries.
And after three bodies were found floating on the surface of the sea water, last week a naked body was found floating on the seashore in Sheikh Zinad – Arida yesterday.
Smugglers adopt a new and “difficult” mechanism to hide from the eyes of the Lebanese army navy, which continuously patrols the sea to prevent this illegal activity. The process is carried out via fishing boats or picnics, and is moved from the port area near Tripoli, not from the legitimate port of Tripoli.
The security information indicates that the smugglers move to the island of Conejos off Tripoli, and wait for the large ships to pass at night from that area to cover them by walking alongside it, allowing them to hide from the gaze of the patrols of army, until they reach international waters, to avoid being detained freely. The army, military sources told Al-Sharq al-Awsat.
Despite the intensification of procedures and the frustration of illegal immigration attempts, and one of the ships sank, those involved in the escape attempts did not stop their attempts. One of those who left and were returned to Lebanon by the Cypriot authorities told Asharq Al-Awsat that he would not stop trying to escape the economic and living crises afflicting the population of the northern region.
The mayor of Tripoli, Riyad Yamak, says that the poor living situation and the economic crisis are pushing the population to choose to emigrate.
Yamak added that about half of Tripoli’s population is below the poverty line, as a result of stopping working in sectors such as small professions and tourism and sports, due to the economic crisis, adding that the Size of the crisis “ needs solutions from the state and exceeds the capacity of the municipality of Tripoli to solve it given that we are restricted. In the absence of administrative decentralization, “he stressed that” there are no solutions other than solving the worsening of the living crisis.