DAMASCUS -

Salem, 39, a Syrian civil engineer displaced to the Damascus countryside, insists on emigrating to Europe despite the great dangers involved and the many daily death stories on the way.

He told Al Jazeera Net, "I and my family can no longer afford the cost of living here in Syria, the prices are boiling and the salaries are only enough for two or three days at the latest, and I have many and expensive obligations...".

The man had to borrow from his brother, who lives in the Netherlands, to be able to pay off his debts.

"Today, my wife and I are discussing the possibility of borrowing an additional amount so that I can immigrate to Holland or Germany," he said.

Regarding the risks that this migration may entail, Salem says, "No matter how dangerous the journey is, I do not think that there is anything worse than what we are experiencing in our country."

A woman presents her family members who drowned in a boat near the Syrian coast (French)

unprecedented deterioration

Despite the attempts of European countries to reduce irregular migration starting in 2016 by setting up barbed wire on the borders and the notorious refugee detention centers in Greece, Macedonia and others, along with the great risks and bad weather conditions that refugees face on the way to asylum by land or sea, the dream of migration is still dreaming. Many Syrians are in the areas controlled by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the rest of the country as a result of the unprecedented deterioration in the standard of living, and the significant increase in poverty and unemployment rates over the past few years.

In addition to the economic and living motive, thousands of young men in the regime-controlled areas are forced to emigrate after reaching the age of 18 or after completing their university studies in order to avoid compulsory service in the ranks of the regular army, and the risk of death in battles.

The dream of Syrians migrating in their country goes beyond to refugees in Lebanon in particular, who fear “forcibly returning them to Syria with the security arrests that this might cause, and the lack of infrastructure in most of the areas from which they were displaced years ago,” says Simon Muhanna, a lawyer and activist in Refugee issues in Lebanon.

The incident of the sinking of the asylum boat near the Syrian shores, last Thursday, recalled the horror scenes of the victims of drowning in the Aegean Sea during the wave of migration in Europe in 2015 and 2016.

Especially after the death toll from the asylum boat near the Syrian coast rose until Saturday to 94 people.


new destination

With the exacerbation of the living crises in the areas under the control of the Syrian regime, the trend of irregular migration has returned, but the first destination of the refugees this time was Lebanon.

The Lebanese authorities announced that they had thwarted several illegal immigration attempts during the past few months, some of them across the Syrian-Lebanese border, and others from the Lebanese shores to European countries.

On August 22, the Lebanese army stopped a bus carrying Syrians heading in an irregular way to Lebanon through the Wadi Khaled area, adjacent to the city of Homs.

The length of the border between the two countries in this region exceeds 16 kilometers, which facilitates the smuggling of goods and people.

Investigations revealed that these operations are run by Syrian and Lebanese smugglers through dirt crossings linking the two regions, and they operate daily flights to and from Lebanese territory with amounts not exceeding $100 per person.

The movement of people smuggling from Syrian territory to Lebanon is also active through the official Josieh and Tal Kalakh crossings, where the most prominent gates used by human smuggling convoys towards Lebanon.

The Jose Crossing is located in the Al-Qusayr area in the Homs countryside and reaches the Lebanese Bekaa Valley, and through it smuggling of weapons, fuel, smoke and people smuggling takes place.

As for the Tal Kalakh crossing, it is located on the border with the Lebanese region of Wadi Khaled, and the crossing remained under the control of the Syrian regime forces throughout the years of the Syrian war (from 2012 until now).

Recently, the two crossings are witnessing a large turnout of migrants against the backdrop of the high costs of migration to Turkey, and the measures taken to reduce the flow of migrants to Turkey.

A sea-land border point in the Arida area between northern Lebanon and Syria witnesses active smuggling of asylum seekers (Al-Jazeera)

The starting point

Most of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, numbering about 1.8 million, along with a large segment of the Lebanese, live in difficult humanitarian and living conditions as a result of the economic collapse that the country witnessed during the years 2021 and 2022.

This reality is prompting more Syrian refugees to think of ways to irregularly migrate to countries that provide them with the minimum requirements for a decent living.

The coastal city of Tripoli (in the north) is a destination for refugees, where smuggling networks are active and their routes start across the sea to European countries such as Italy, Greece and the island of Malta.

Abu Ahmed, a Lebanese smuggler in Tripoli, told Al Jazeera Net, "We travel from one to two trips per week, from the Qalamoun area in the Tripoli district to Italy by sea, and it takes 3 to 5 days."

The cost of the trip, according to Abu Ahmed, "is $6,500 for an adult, half of it for children under 12 years old, and part of the amount will be delivered before departure and the other upon arrival in Italy."

Regarding safety measures for travelers, the smuggler says, "We provide the boat with life jackets and small rubber boats, and the rest is in the hands of God."

The pace of irregular migration of Syrians from the Lebanese coast to European countries is increasing, coinciding with the announcement by the Lebanese authorities, a few days ago, to start opening 17 centers concerned with the deportation of refugees throughout the country.

On September 8, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati sent a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in which he spoke of the "Syrian displacement crisis out of control" in light of the economic crisis in the country.

The bodies of dozens of migrants were recovered after their boat sank on the coast of the Syrian city of Tartus# Shabakat pic.twitter.com/Mi1ayHjXkh

- Al Jazeera (@AJArabic) September 25, 2022

Death Journeys

Regarding the great dangers of riding in the “death boats” departing from Tripoli, lawyer Simon Muhanna said, “The boats leave the coast of the city heading to Cyprus or Italy, but some smugglers defraud the passengers who find themselves on the Syrian coasts in Tartus or Latakia.”

In the event of the trip to its actual destination, Muhanna says, "Reaching to Italy, for example, requires five days at sea, and refugees often run out of food and drink and their boats break down in Cypriot or Maltese waters."

He adds, "Greece, Malta and Italy take strict measures with regard to irregular immigration boats, preventing or delaying rescue operations for broken boats in their waters for days in an attempt to deter and frighten those wishing to take these routes, which leads to deaths among migrants from starvation and thirst and as a result of prolonged exposure to the sun, or Because their boats are ineffective in facing the waves of the sea.

In similar circumstances, two children died, on the fifth of this September, on board a boat that departed from Tripoli on August 27 and got stuck in Maltese waters, and despite the Greek Coast Guard reporting that it had broken down, it did not move to the rescue of the boat that carried 60 people until after 4 days, according to the Unified Rescue Group, which monitors irregular migration.

The last and most painful of these accidents was the sinking of a boat near the shores of the city of Tartus, northwest of Syria, on Thursday.

After he set off from the coast of Tripoli, he was carrying 150 people, including Syrians, Palestinians and Lebanese.

The Syrian port of Tartus during the search for survivors of a refugee boat sinking off it (Reuters)

thousands of drowned

A report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, last April, indicated that the number of victims of irregular migration across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic rose to 3 thousand people during the past year alone.

A recent study by the Harmon Center for Contemporary Studies entitled “Migration from Regime-Controlled Areas after 2019: Motives, Destinations and Effects” concluded that the Syrian regime could be involved in facilitating and facilitating the exit of refugees from illegal crossings, either by turning a blind eye to them, or by directly supervising smuggling routes.

The Syrian war, which has been going on since 2012, has led to the displacement and asylum of more than 13 million citizens, including 1.8 million who fled to Lebanon, according to Lebanese estimates.