NORTHERN LEBANON -
Amidst dozens of women clad in black, the grieved Lebanese mother, Mustafa Misto, mourns the death of her son and three grandchildren, when a boat they were on sank off the coast of Tartus, Syria, after it set out from the shore of Miniyeh (Northern Lebanon), while his wife and son escaped drowning.
The bereaved mother bows her head and tightens her feet, repeating the phrase, "I don't believe, give me back my son."
Her two sisters and neighbors lie flat on her shoulder, but she shouts to Al-Jazeera Net, "They killed him with his children, this country (you mean Lebanon) is the one who killed him."
The outskirts of Nahr al-Bared near the Syrian border, where many of the victims of the sinking boat belong (Al-Jazeera)
live testimonials
Here in the "Bab al-Raml" neighborhood in Tripoli, Mustafa Misto, a 34-year-old taxi driver, was one of the desperate people from the North Governorate, which has fallen asleep and awakened to news of the sailing of irregular migration boats from its coasts towards Europe, specifically Italy, almost daily, and includes Lebanese Syrians and Palestinians.
Mesto sold all his possessions, including a car and home furniture, and went to pay at least $12,000 to a smuggler, at a sea risk in which the danger of death advances, in order to reach “the European salvation land from the hell of Lebanon,” according to what he used to say in front of his mother, who refused to travel with this. The way, until he was oblivious to her by secretly escaping with his family.
This aspiring driver fell into the trap of some smugglers who defrauded him of money, and this is the fourth time that he tried to emigrate after he drowned in debts that made him unable to buy the most basic needs of his children, as his country plunged into one of the worst economic crises in the world.
Several kilometers away, signs of despair intensify in Bab al-Tabbaneh, one of the most unjust, poor, and calamitous regions of Lebanon, where five members of the al-Talawi family drowned.
The son of this family, Wissam, managed to survive and was taken to Al-Basel Hospital in Tartous, while his wife and two children were not found, while his two young daughters, May and Maya, were the first bodies to be transferred to Lebanon, and they were buried and buried in their hometown of Akkar, according to Abdullah Shaqiq. The victim of Al Jazeera Net.
From inside his cracked house within the slums of adjacent buildings, some of which are threatened with collapse, Abdullah says, suffocating in grief for his brother’s children, that Wissam (a cleaner) had previously informed his family of his decision to emigrate by sea and sell his property for this purpose, “but we did not believe that he would dare to risk, and we did not We take his words seriously, and we feel guilt and oppression over him, as days passed when he was crying for not being able to provide for his children's food and education because of the high prices, after the value of his salary deteriorated to about $25 a month.
As for the Nahr al-Bared camp for Palestinian refugees - which overlooks the coastal maritime border that separates Lebanon in the north at the Arida point in Akkar from Syria - the chapters of the humanitarian catastrophe are evident, amid reports of the drowning and loss of at least 20 Palestinians from the camp and the survival of 4 others.
There, Palestinian activist Khansa Ghanouma told Al Jazeera Net that a long list of men, children and women names had been monitored, and one of the families had drowned, like Al Hassan (father, mother and 4 children).
Ghannoumeh explains that the situation inside the camp has reached a dangerous level of deterioration of living conditions, and that dozens of young men are coordinating with major smugglers to facilitate the migration of irregular families towards Europe, "because they are stuck between the hell of Lebanon and the loss of their right to return to Palestine."
According to her, the Palestinians of the camp pay the smugglers huge sums of money in comparison to their poverty, with the cost of each individual ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 dollars, "they sell their property and borrow to provide it."
In front of the house of Wissam al-Talawi's family in Bab al-Tabbaneh (Al-Jazeera)
Akkar escape platform
The sinking of this boat comes in the context of an unprecedented wave of irregular migration from Lebanon, specifically from the northern coast, which extends from “Al-Madfoun” to the last sea border point with Syria in Al-Arida, despite the presence of security services and radars for the naval forces of the Lebanese Army, which announces between time And another about thwarting irregular migration processes.
According to the information, "Benin" witnessed military raids on Thursday in search of those involved in smuggling this sunken boat.
It is the largest of the Akkar coast towns, which is famous for its fishing, fishermen and sea "experts", and is experiencing intense movement of migrants and the organization of smuggling operations in the dark of night.
From the Syrian island of Arwad, which the waves threw the boat in front of, Lebanese smugglers import boats to emigrate from there, according to the data of Al-Jazeera Net, and their costs vary according to their size and capacity, but they are not less than $30,000.
On a tour of Al Jazeera Net, a few days ago, along the Akkar coast to Arida, I spotted some "sand" places from which boats depart behind abandoned houses.
There, one of the region's experts (reserving to be named) says that irregular migration journeys have become so exposed that "you can ask anyone in the region to point to a broker or smuggler who is active in this field, and they reap profits in millions of dollars."
The basic rule for these trips is that they include Syrians in the first place and with Palestinians, even if a few, along with the Lebanese, so that they can enter European countries, some of which do not recognize their right to asylum, like the Syrians and the Palestinians.
But the paradox is that most of the Syrians who migrate from northern Lebanon, according to reliable information, are not refugees, but rather come from the Syrian interior, and most of them come from the southern regions adjacent to the Lebanese borders, such as Daraa, and from the countryside of Damascus and Homs.
They enter surreptitiously through the unofficial land crossings, carrying money and travel supplies, and they pay each person sums ranging between 5 thousand and 7 thousand dollars.
Many Syrians seeking immigration believe that starting from northern Lebanon towards Europe is easier and less expensive than emigrating through Turkey, which imposes strict procedures against migrants.
The slums in Bab al-Tabbaneh from which dozens migrate by boat (Al-Jazeera)
Fear of what's next
The circumstances of the sinking of the boat have not yet emerged, while the families of the survivors are circulating several stories, including that the waves of the sea and the strong winds in September sank it and pushed it towards Tartus, and the question of its European destination has not been resolved.
It is estimated that he was carrying at least 100 to 150 passengers, while about 87 bodies were found, about 20 survivors were rescued, and the search for other missing persons is underway by the Syrian regime authorities.
On Thursday evening, the Lebanese Red Cross received from the Syrian Red Crescent the bodies of 9 identified Lebanese (7 adults and two girls) and two Palestinians.
Some Lebanese and Palestinians went to Tartous to identify the bodies, because some of them did not have identification papers.
The death toll from this boat is the highest since the movement of irregular migrants became active in Lebanon, and it intensified after the 2019 crisis, reaching its peak two months ago in 2022. Scenes of victims, photos and videos from Tartous revived an unhealed wound in Tripoli after a boat sank last April 23 off its shore. And the loss of at least 33 bodies at sea inside the boat sank, and it settled at a depth of more than 450 meters, and it was not possible to recover it despite the use of a special submarine weeks ago for this purpose.
In early September, an Egyptian ship managed to rescue the passengers of an irregular immigration boat that set off from Akkar heading towards Italy, when the boat broke down due to an engine failure in the territorial waters between Greece and Malta, and it was transporting 60 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian migrants (most of them from Nahr al-Bared camp). They were all saved after a serious confrontation with death.
His condition is like dozens of boats that started from northern Lebanon and got lost in the Mediterranean, their passengers waiting for rescue or drowning, or entering Europe as refugees.