TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Lebanese rescue teams searched the
Mediterranean for survivors Monday after an overloaded people-smuggling boat
capsized while being pursued by naval forces, with dozens missing at sea.
اضافة اعلان
At least six people died as a result of the tragedy late
Saturday off the northern port city of
Tripoli. Officials had reported a
seventh victim Monday but it later turned out that one of the bodies recovered
had been tallied twice.
The sea accident, Lebanon's worst such disaster in years,
ignited widespread public anger just three weeks before May 15 parliamentary
elections in the small country hit by a severe economic crisis.
The anger mixed with grief as hundreds thronged the streets
of Tripoli in funeral processions Monday for two of the victims, including a
little girl. Mourners fired their guns into the air, with small children
sweeping the ground for bullet casings.
"Our state is worth nothing," said Ali Taleb, 23,
who was burying his sister and niece.
The Lebanese army said Sunday that 48 people had been
rescued, but it was not immediately clear exactly how many would-be asylum
seekers were crammed onto the boat when it set off.
The
UNHCR said the boat was carrying at least 84 people when
it capsized about three nautical miles (5.5km) off the coast — which would
leave some 30 people still unaccounted for.
The passengers included Syrian and
Palestinian refugees but
most were Lebanese, according to local media.
Migration wave
Waiting for news of two of his missing relatives, Abu
Mohammad said he was not deterred from potentially taking to the sea in search
of a better life himself.
"We all want to leave. We don't want our children to
live in humiliation," the 43-year-old Tripoli resident told AFP, blaming
political leaders for Lebanon's woes.
"We will keep trying to leave every week, in any way
possible, even if it means we will have to swim."
The circumstances that led the small and overloaded craft to
sink were not entirely clear, with some survivors claiming the navy rammed into
their boat, and officials insisting the smuggler attempted reckless escape
maneuvers.
Lebanon was once a transit point for asylum seekers from
elsewhere in the region who were hoping to reach the
EU island state Cyprus,
175km away.
However, an unprecedented economic crisis that has caused
hyper-inflation and plunged millions into poverty is driving growing numbers of
Lebanese to also attempt the perilous crossing.
The UN says more than 1,500 would-be asylum seekers tried to
leave Lebanon illegally by sea since the start of 2021.
"Lebanon's economic crisis has triggered one of the
largest waves of migration in the country's history," said Mathieu
Luciano, Lebanon head of the International Organization for Migration.
Mounting anger
At Tripoli's port, brothers Abdelkarim and Mahmud Dandashi
were anxiously waiting for news of eight relatives.
"If you don't die of hunger here, you die at sea,"
Abdelkarim said.
Syrian national Ammar Dawalibi has slept in his car near the
harbor since Saturday, waiting for updates on his sister and her three
children.
"I'm sure they drowned ... but I want their
bodies," he told AFP.
The tragedy triggered small protests on Sunday, one cutting
a main road into Tripoli, another staged outside the morgue where victims'
bodies were taken.
Overnight, activists removed election posters from the walls
of Tripoli — a city ravaged by unemployment but also home to some of Lebanon's
wealthiest politicians.
On Sunday evening, a video circulated on social media
showing
Energy Minister Walid Fayad being taken to task in the streets over
living conditions and shoved hard against a wall.
The man who assaulted him posted the video, and criticized
Fayad and the government for being insensitive to the fate of millions of
desperate Lebanese.
Social media was also abuzz with a picture of Prime Minister
Najib Mikati's 79-meter-long 100-million-dollar yacht docked in the French city
of Nice, with a cardboard banner alongside that read: "The people of
Tripoli are being assassinated by this yacht's owner."
Mikati hails from Tripoli and is also Lebanon's richest man,
with a net worth estimated at around $3.2 billion.
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