Death toll of Lebanon migrant ship tragedy rises to 89

Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), called it a "heart-wrenching tragedy"."There are 89 victims, while 14 people are receiving treatment at Al-Basel Hospital, two of whom are in intensive care," Syria's official news agency SANA reported, quoting Iskandar Ammar, a hospital official.Lebanon, a country which hosts more than a million refugees from Syria's civil war, has since 2019 been mired in a financial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern times.As many as 150 people were on board the small boat that sank off the Syrian port of Tartus, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Tripoli in Lebanon, from where the migrants set sail.Families in Lebanon held a second day of funerals Saturday after they were handed bodies of relatives on Friday night through the Arida border crossing with Syria.Hundreds of people gathered Saturday for the funeral procession of one of the victims, pumping fists into the air, as relatives wept carrying a makeshift coffin through the streets.Since 2020, Lebanon has seen a spike in the number of migrants using its shores to attempt the perilous crossing in jam-packed boats to reach Europe."Years of political instability and economic crisis in Lebanon have pushed many children and families into poverty, affecting their health, welfare and education," UNICEF added."People are taking this perilous decisions, risking their lives in search of dignity."Antonio Vitorino, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said: "People looking for safety should not be compelled to take such perilous and often deadly migration journeys."bur-rh/aya...

from Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/HARy3O2

September 24, 2022 at 10:03PM
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Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), called it a "heart-wrenching tragedy"."There are 89 victims, while 14 people are receiving treatment at Al-Basel Hospital, two of whom are in intensive care," Syria's official news agency SANA reported, quoting Iskandar Ammar, a hospital official.Lebanon, a country which hosts more than a million refugees from Syria's civil war, has since 2019 been mired in a financial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern times.As many as 150 people were on board the small boat that sank off the Syrian port of Tartus, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Tripoli in Lebanon, from where the migrants set sail.Families in Lebanon held a second day of funerals Saturday after they were handed bodies of relatives on Friday night through the Arida border crossing with Syria.Hundreds of people gathered Saturday for the funeral procession of one of the victims, pumping fists into the air, as relatives wept carrying a makeshift coffin through the streets.Since 2020, Lebanon has seen a spike in the number of migrants using its shores to attempt the perilous crossing in jam-packed boats to reach Europe."Years of political instability and economic crisis in Lebanon have pushed many children and families into poverty, affecting their health, welfare and education," UNICEF added."People are taking this perilous decisions, risking their lives in search of dignity."Antonio Vitorino, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said: "People looking for safety should not be compelled to take such perilous and often deadly migration journeys."bur-rh/aya...