Bodies of 73 migrants are found after boat bound for Europe sinks off coast of Syria

• At least 73 people died in the deadliest incident since a surging number migrants have tried to flee crisis-hit Lebanon by sea to Europe
• Syrian authorities began finding bodies off the coast of Tartus on Thursday 
• The Syrian director-general of ports said rescue efforts continuing on Friday

At least 73 people died when a migrant boat they were aboard sank off the Syrian coast. 

The boat was sailing from Lebanon earlier this week, the Lebanese transport minister said, as search operations continued on Friday.

The incident is the deadliest since a surging number of Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians have tried to flee crisis-hit Lebanon by sea to Europe. 

At least 73 people died when a migrant boat they were aboard sank off the Syrian coast

The boat was sailing from Lebanon earlier this week, the Lebanese transport minister said, as search operations continued on Friday

The incident is the deadliest since a surging number of Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians have tried to flee crisis-hit Lebanon by sea to Europe

In Lebanon alone, tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs and the Lebanese pound has dropped more than 90% of its value, eradicating the purchasing power of thousands of families that now live in extreme poverty. 

Syrian authorities began finding bodies off the coast of Tartus on Thursday afternoon. The Syrian transport ministry has cited survivors saying the boat left from Lebanon’s northern Minyeh region on Tuesday with between 120 and 150 people onboard, bound for Europe.

Lebanese transport minister Ali Hamiye said 20 survivors were being treated in Syrian hospitals, the bulk of them Syrians, around 1 million of whom live in Lebanon as refugees.

The boat was ‘very small’ and made of wood, he said, describing such sailings as an almost daily occurrence organised by people who did not care for safety.

Samer Qubrusli, the Syrian director-general of ports, said rescue efforts were continuing on Friday.

A Syrian port official told state news agency, SANA, that 31 bodies were washed to the shore and the rest were picked up by Syrian boats that began a search operation Thursday evening. 

The spate of such voyages has been fuelled by Lebanon’s financial collapse – one of the worst ever recorded globally. 

Lebanese transport minister Ali Hamiye said 20 survivors were being treated in Syrian hospitals, the bulk of them Syrians, around 1 million of whom live in Lebanon as refugees

Ambulances wait on the Lebanese side of the Arida Border Crossing with Syria on September 23, 2022, for the arrival of the bodies of the shipwrecked Lebanese

Lebanon, which since 2019 has been mired in a financial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern times, has become a launchpad for illegal migration, with its own citizens joining Syrian and Palestinian refugees clamouring to leave the country

Poverty rates have sky-rocketed among the population of some 6.5 million.

Cyprus scrambled search and rescue crews late on Monday and Tuesday when in the space of hours two vessels carrying migrants from Lebanon put out distress signals; there were 300 in one vessel, 177 in the other. 

They were all rescued, the island’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center said.

The Lebanese army said on Wednesday it had rescued 55 people on board one malfunctioning boat in the country’s territorial waters and towed it back to shore.

The number of people who have left or tried to leave Lebanon by sea nearly doubled in 2021 from 2020, the United Nations refugee agency told Reuters earlier this month.

It rose again by more than 70% in 2022 compared with the same period last year.

In April, a migrant boat that set off from near the northern city of Tripoli sank during an interception by the Lebanese navy off the coast.

About 80 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian migrants were on board, of whom some 40 were rescued, seven were confirmed dead and around 30 officially remain missing.

On Wednesday, Lebanese officials said naval forces rescued a boat carrying 55 migrants after it faced technical problems about seven miles off the coast of the northern region of Akkar. 

It said the people rescued included two pregnant women and two children. 

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