TRIPOLI, Lebanon — If he wasn’t making good
money smuggling irregular migrants to the
EU by sea, Ibrahim himself might have
joined the growing exodus from crisis-hit Lebanon.
اضافة اعلان
“If I didn’t work in this profession, I would have
left, just like so many other people,” said the 42-year-old trafficker, who
asked to use a pseudonym when he spoke to AFP in the northern city of Tripoli.
“Maybe I would have turned to someone to smuggle me
out,” he said, his face hidden by an anti-COVID surgical mask and a hoodie.
Lebanon, in the throes of a brutal economic crisis,
is no longer just a launch pad for
Syrian refugees and other foreign migrants.
Its own desperate citizens now also risk drowning in
the Mediterranean in their quest for a better life.
Ibrahim argues that, while having smuggled around
100 Lebanese nationals to Europe since 2019 makes him no angel, there is virtue
in helping his compatriots.
“I get them out of here, out of this beggar’s life,”
he said. “At least if they are put in a camp, they can eat and drink with
dignity.”
Ibrahim said he took pride in taking only
Lebanese nationals on his boats, and even then, only those who can produce civil
registry documents.
“I get requests from
Palestinians and Syrians but I
am responsible only for my own countrymen,” said Ibrahim, a former school bus
driver whose tumbling income led him to people smuggling.
“There are many Lebanese who want to leave. ... They
are ready to sell their houses, sell their cars, sell everything, just to make
it out.”
Sinking ship
Lebanon, a country of around
6 million people, is like a sinking ship, grappling with an unprecedented
financial crisis that the
World Bank says is on a scale usually associated with
wars.
The currency has crashed, people’s purchasing power
has plummeted and the monthly minimum wage is now worth $22.
The UN’s refugee
agency
UNHCR said at least 1,570 individuals, including 186 Lebanese nationals,
had embarked or tried to embark on illicit sea journeys from Lebanon between
January and November 2021.
Most were hoping to reach EU member Cyprus, an
island 175km away.
This is up from 270 passengers, including 40
Lebanese in 2019, UNHCR spokesperson Lisa Abou Khaled told AFP.
“In previous years, the vast majority of passengers
were Syrians, while in 2020 and 2021, a notable number of Lebanese joined these
movements,” she said.
Lives have been lost, including those of two little
children, during attempted crossings over the past two years, though there is
little data and no exact toll.
The Lebanese army said it is diligently monitoring
the 225km coastline with radar systems and patrol boats.
A joint maritime operations room facilitates
coordination between naval forces and other security agencies as well
authorities in
Cyprus.
“In 2020, the navy succeeded in seizing about 20
boats and detaining 596 people,” the army said.
The army said that “Lebanese nationals who know
their way around the country’s coastline” are the most common smuggling
culprits.
They include Ibrahim who said he organized an
illicit sea crossing to Europe in 2019 for a Lebanese family of five now
residing in Germany.
Since then, he said he has organized nine others,
including his latest in September which saw 25 Lebanese nationals arrive in
Italy.
With prices ranging from $2,500 per person for a
trip to Cyprus to up to $7,000 to get to Italy, Ibrahim said he can make up to
$5,000 profit from a single boat journey.
“We used to have to advertise our trips,” he said.
“Now people come running to us.”
‘No future’
Sitting on a bench on
Tripoli’s coast, Bilal Moussa, 34, was watching the giant waves that almost
swallowed him in November.
Taking a long drag from a cigarette, the father of
three said he would try again.
“There is no future here, not for us and not for our
children,” said Moussa, who quit his supermarket job because his monthly salary
of $55 barely paid for his commute.
In September, Moussa decided to attempt the sea
voyage to Italy.
He sold his car and borrowed $1,500 from a friend to
cover the $4,000 for the trip.
On November 19, Moussa packed a small duffel bag and
left his home in the Dinniyeh region without even telling his wife.
When he reached the Tripoli meeting point, he found
around 90 passengers clambering onto a truck that would drive them to the
Qalamoun region from where they would depart.
They included 15 Palestinians and 10 Syrians, while
the rest were Lebanese.
“We had 35 children on board, and around 20 women,”
he said.
Two hours after the 18m craft set sail, a navy boat
took chase and ordered the captain back.
Their overcrowded craft started taking on water from
the wake of the patrol boat, but the captain sped off and lost his tail after
an hour-long white-knuckle chase.
The next terrifying moment came when the engine
broke down and the boat started to sink, in the dark.
Panicked passengers started throwing suitcases and
fuel tanks overboard.
Moussa and others contacted relatives back home to
send help, which arrived several hours later.
A Lebanese army ship came and towed them back
ashore, where passengers were interrogated and then released.
“I felt defeated because I came back, because I
didn’t make it,” Moussa said.
“But I am going to leave again. ... We have no path ahead
but the sea.”
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