2024-04-20 23:46:19
Syrian refugees who immigrated from Lebanon illegally face an ambiguous fate at sea, after their boats were intercepted by the Cypriot Coast Guard.
There is conflicting information about the number of boats that left the Lebanese coast and the number of refugees they are carrying on board, as the “Alarm Phone” platform indicated that it received a request for help two days ago from two boats carrying 73 people, including many children, some of whom are sick, and who have been stuck at sea for 4 days. Days later, they ran out of food and drink and had no fuel to continue their journey.
The platform criticized the Cypriot authorities for what it described as “heinous attacks” against those fleeing Syria and Lebanon, noting that they attacked several boats trying to reach Cyprus and obstructed their journey, in addition to suspending the right to asylum for Syrian citizens.
While the Cypriot website “alphanews” reported the arrival of six boats carrying about 500 refugees, the brother of one of the passengers confirmed that eight boats sailed last Monday from Akkar Beach to Cyprus.
Amnesty International expressed its concern in a tweet on its pages on the social networking site “X” “about reports of dangerous conditions on board two boats heading to Cyprus.”
With the approach of each summer, illegal immigration operations are active across the Lebanese shores, especially the northern ones, since a large number of Syrians took refuge in Lebanon following the outbreak of war in their country, and then due to the economic crisis that has been ravaging Lebanon for about 5 years.
After the campaign of violence and racism that Syrians are exposed to following the kidnapping and murder of Lebanese Forces Party official, Pascal Suleiman, and the accusation of Syrians being behind it, a significant increase in the number of migrants among them is expected, according to Sablouh, “and this appears clear from the increase in the number of migrant boats en masse.” “And not individually.”
It is noteworthy that the number of migrants arriving in Cyprus decreased in general, but the number of arrivals on boats from Syria and Lebanon increased, according to Agence France-Presse, by a large percentage, reaching 4,259 in 2023 compared to 937 in 2022.
In the middle of this month, Cypriot Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou revealed, in a post on the
Statistics from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) indicate that in the first quarter of this year, the Eastern Mediterranean overtook the West African route as the most active route to the European Union for illegal migrants, with the number of detections of migrants doubling to slightly more than 13,700, and Syrians, Afghans, and Egyptians occupied the forefront of the nationalities migrating through this route.
The “Migrant News” website reported that more than 1,000 people have arrived by sea to Cyprus from Lebanon since the beginning of April, and more than 2,000 migrants were registered in the first three months of this year, compared to only 78 during the same period in 2023, and on the first of… Only in April, 271 migrants arrived, most of them Syrians, on five boats that set off from the shores of Lebanon.
It is noteworthy that more than 800,000 Syrian refugees registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees live in Lebanon, while the Lebanese authorities estimate their number at more than two million people. The file of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has witnessed an unprecedented escalation in the recent period by the Lebanese government, which seeks to deport them by all possible means, despite warnings from human rights organizations of the dangers of forced return to Syria, which is considered an unsafe country so far.
But the Syrian presence in Lebanon is not new or urgent, according to what the former head of the opposition coalition and the Syrian National Council, George Sabra, confirms: “The Syrians have contributed to the reconstruction of this country since the 1950s, and Lebanese forums and universities know Syrian intellectuals and politicians well.”
Last updated: April 19, 2024 – 00:02
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2024-04-20 23:46:19