The country, which has been mired since 2019 in an economic crisis that the World Bank has described as one of the worst in modern times, has become a hotbed for illegal immigration, with its own citizens joining Syrian and Palestinian refugees who cry out to leave the country. Syrian state television quoted Health Minister Mohammed Hassan Ghabas as saying 73 people had died and 20 people had been rescued alive. Lebanon’s acting transport minister, Ali Hami, said more than 100 people, mostly Lebanese and Syrian, were on board the small boat that sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the Syrian city of Tartus on Thursday. Syrian authorities had said there were about 150 passengers on board. Of those rescued, five were Lebanese, he said, adding: “I am discussing with the Syrian transport minister a mechanism to retrieve the bodies from Syria.” Tartus is the southernmost of Syria’s main ports. It is about 30 miles (50 km) north of the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli, where the passengers had boarded. Wissam al-Talawi from Lebanon’s northern Akkar region was among the survivors and was being treated in hospital, his brother Ahmad said. Wissam’s two daughters, aged five and nine, died in the wreck. Their bodies had been returned to Lebanon where they were buried early Friday, Ahmad said. Wissam’s wife and two sons are still missing, he said. “They left two days ago. My brother could not afford his daily expenses or the cost of enrolling his children in school.” Family members of others on the boat said they had gone to the Syrian border to try to get information about their relatives. The number of migrants using Lebanon’s shores to attempt the dangerous crossing to Europe in overcrowded boats rose last year. Dozens of people died in April when an overcrowded migrant boat being chased by the Lebanese navy sank off the coast of Tripoli, sparking outrage in the country. The circumstances of the incident were not entirely clear. Some on board said the navy blocked their vessel, but officials said the smugglers had attempted reckless escape maneuvers. Many of the bodies were never recovered. The Turkish coastguard said six migrants, including two babies, had died and rescued 73 people trying to reach Europe off the coast of southwestern Mugla province earlier this month. They had reportedly boarded in Tripoli in an attempt to reach Italy. Most of the boats departing from Lebanon head for Cyprus, an EU member state located 110 miles to the west.
