Syrian officials have found 100 bodies from a Lebanese migrant boat that drowned off the coast of Syria last week, according to state media accounts of one of the bloodiest catastrophes in the eastern Mediterranean in recent years. The first remains were discovered last Thursday, and only 20 of up to 150 passengers were saved, according to officials.
“Another body has been discovered from the water, bringing the total number of casualties of the Lebanese boat to 100,” Samer Kbrasli, the head of Syrian ports, was quoted as saying by Syria’s official news agency SANA on Monday.
SANA reported that all survivors had been released from the hospital.
Nearly three years of severe economic turmoil have transformed Lebanon into a launching pad for migrants, with Lebanese civilians joining Syrian and Palestinian refugees seeking to flee growing poverty via perilous maritime journeys.
On September 23, 2022, ambulances wait on the Lebanese side of the Arida Border Crossing with Syria for the arrival of the bodies of the shipwrecked Lebanese, who drowned when their boat capsized off the coast of Syria. FATHI AL-MASRI/AFP courtesy of Getty Images
The majority of those aboard the ship that departed from the impoverished northern city of Tripoli in Lebanon were Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians, as well as children and the elderly, according to the United Nations.
The World Bank has labeled Lebanon’s financial and economic crises as one of the worst in modern history. Lebanon is home to more than a million refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war.
High Commissioner for Refugees of the United Nations Filippo Grandi called the shipwreck as a “heartbreaking tragedy.”
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent uploaded photographs on its Facebook page depicting volunteers transporting bagged bodies into an ambulance. A second video appeared to depict volunteers dragging a lifeless person onto the shore.
The European Council on Refugees and Exiles tweeted on Friday, “Remember that these folks had families they cared about and ambitions they wished to realize.”
Since 2020, Lebanon has witnessed an increase in the number of migrants making the risky voyage to Europe in overcrowded boats.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that ten children looked to be “among those who lost their lives” and that “years of political turmoil and economic crisis in Lebanon have forced many children and families into poverty.”
Since 2014, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has received reports of over 24,000 missing migrants in the Mediterranean region. More than 17,000 deaths and disappearances have been recorded throughout the Central Mediterranean since 2014, according to the organization.