Published : 25-09-2022
A number of Palestinian families have launched appeals for information about their relatives who disappeared on Friday, September 22, after an Italy-bound boat carrying illegal migrants from Tartous city, in Syria, capsized.
Syrian authorities have found 34 bodies and rescued more than a dozen migrants off the coast of the northern port city of Tartus on Thursday suspected of having left north Lebanon bound towards Europe earlier this week.
Samer Qubrusli, the Syrian director-general of ports, told Reuters that authorities had found 34 bodies and rescued 14 people in Syrian waters by Thursday evening.
The Syrian transport ministry cited survivors as saying the boat left from Lebanon's northern Minyeh region on Tuesday with between 120 and 150 people onboard.
The Lebanese Army announced Saturday that it had arrested a suspected smuggler who allegedly organized the ill-fated boat journey. Investigations are continuing to arrest others involved, the army said.
UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, said on Friday that it was "deeply saddened by the death toll on the boat that sank off the Syrian coast from Lebanon," and said that "yesterday's [Thursday's] tragedy, and those that preceded it, are stark reminders that collective action is urgently needed to prevent families from dying at sea”.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, deplored on Friday "another heartbreaking tragedy," calling on the international community to help "improve the conditions of those forced to flee their country, as well as those of the communities hosting them."
A number of Palestinian families have launched appeals for information about their relatives who disappeared on Friday, September 22, after an Italy-bound boat carrying illegal migrants from Tartous city, in Syria, capsized.
Syrian authorities have found 34 bodies and rescued more than a dozen migrants off the coast of the northern port city of Tartus on Thursday suspected of having left north Lebanon bound towards Europe earlier this week.
Samer Qubrusli, the Syrian director-general of ports, told Reuters that authorities had found 34 bodies and rescued 14 people in Syrian waters by Thursday evening.
The Syrian transport ministry cited survivors as saying the boat left from Lebanon's northern Minyeh region on Tuesday with between 120 and 150 people onboard.
The Lebanese Army announced Saturday that it had arrested a suspected smuggler who allegedly organized the ill-fated boat journey. Investigations are continuing to arrest others involved, the army said.
UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, said on Friday that it was "deeply saddened by the death toll on the boat that sank off the Syrian coast from Lebanon," and said that "yesterday's [Thursday's] tragedy, and those that preceded it, are stark reminders that collective action is urgently needed to prevent families from dying at sea”.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, deplored on Friday "another heartbreaking tragedy," calling on the international community to help "improve the conditions of those forced to flee their country, as well as those of the communities hosting them."
