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Tripoli residents who’re involved with the survivors say a girl and a baby – each Syrian – have died.
Two migrants and refugees died and 232 others rescued after the boat they had been travelling in capsized off the coast of Lebanon, the Lebanese military has stated.
Three naval vessels and a ship operated by the United Nations Interim Pressure in Lebanon (UNIFIL) took half in a rescue operation off Selaata, north of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, the military stated.
Reviews from the northern metropolis of Tripoli – Lebanon’s second-largest and most impoverished – stated Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian males, ladies and youngsters had been on the boat that left northern Lebanon after midnight on Friday.
Residents of Tripoli who’re involved with survivors stated the useless had been a Syrian girl and a Syrian little one.
Earlier, the military stated a naval patrol had been dispatched to rescue the vessel filled with folks making an attempt to “illegally depart Lebanese waters”.
On Twitter, UNIFIL confirmed it was helping the Lebanese navy “in search and rescue operation at sea between Beirut and Tripoli the place a ship in misery with numerous folks on board was discovered”.
Dozens of family of these rescued streamed into Tripoli port to await their return to shore, AFP information company stated.
Lebanon is mired in what the World Financial institution describes as one of many worst financial crises in fashionable historical past. The nation additionally hosts greater than one million refugees from Syria’s warfare.
It was as soon as only a launchpad for overseas migrants and refugees, however almost three years of financial collapse have left Lebanon’s personal residents more and more becoming a member of Syrian and Palestinian refugees clamouring to depart by harmful sea routes.
“We are able to not dwell on this nation – or Syria,” stated Younes Jomaa, a Syrian originating from Idlib and a brother of one of many surviving refugees.
They’re amongst hundreds of thousands displaced over greater than a decade by Syria’s warfare.
“I had deliberate to go along with my brother, however was unable to get sufficient cash collectively,” Jomaa stated, including that his brother had taken on debt to fund his voyage.
In late September about 100 migrants and refugees died when their boat sank off the Syrian coast after departing from Lebanon, in one of many deadliest such episodes.
Migrants and refugees departing from Lebanon head for Europe, with one of many primary locations being Cyprus, solely 175km (110 miles) away.
The UN’s refugee company has stated a minimum of 1,570 people, together with 186 Lebanese nationals, had embarked or tried to embark on illicit sea journeys from Lebanon between January and November 2021.
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