Dozens of families in northern Lebanon live in a state of anticipation and fear for their members and relatives, who set off on the eleventh of this month on a boat for illegal immigration towards Italy, but before reaching the European dream they entered into an unknown fate, after which it was reported that they were detained in Libya.
The town of Benin in Akkar has a large share on board the boat, as the smuggler is one of its residents. And who reserved a seat for the young man, Muhammad Abdel Nasser Agha, and according to what his father confirmed to Al-Hurra website, he was not aware of his son’s decision, who tried last year to emigrate without success.
The father says: “I was surprised by the news, after he called his brother Bilal at dawn that day, informing him that he was making his way to the coasts of Italy, after which all news of the boat’s passengers was cut off before we received unconfirmed news about their detention in Libya.”
Muhammad’s financial situation is very difficult. He works as a fisherman in Lebanon, and his father says, “He did not have a single dollar to pay for the seat he reserved on the boat. If he had such an amount, which is estimated at about six thousand dollars, he would not have thought of risking his life.”
And he added, “Since the interruption of communication with him, we are going through the worst days of our lives. We are unable to eat, drink and sleep. All we aspire to is for him to return to our bosom safe and sound, and because none of the officials gave our cause any importance, we will press in the coming days in the street, so that those in power may move a finger.” “.
According to the “Alert Phone” organization, the boat was carrying 110 people, including 40 children, after hundreds were scheduled to sail on board. However, the Lebanese army intelligence stopped a large number of people before they were able to join the boat that was waiting for them in small boats. Territorial waters.
The Army Command – Directorate of Orientation announced in a statement that “a patrol from the Intelligence Directorate, backed by an army unit, in the town of Sheikh Zinad – Akkar, arrested 130 Syrians and 4 citizens for trying to sneak across the sea illegally towards a European country. s”.
Because of the economic collapse, Lebanon has turned into a launching pad for illegal immigrants, and after the vast majority of them in the past years were Syrians, a number of Lebanese and Palestinian refugees joined them since 2020, and after Cyprus was the main destination for these because of its proximity to the northern shores of Lebanon. As the journey takes only a few hours to reach it, as well as Greece, which needs about two days to reach it, Italy has long become the destination as a transit point to Europe.
Doubtful assurances
Samir Al-Baten was surprised by the news that his sister Samar (27 years old) and her two children, his nephew’s wife Iman Darwish and her two children, in addition to the son of his deceased sister, 26-year-old Kifah Khalaf, were on board the boat.
“We did not know what they were preparing for. On the morning of that day, we woke up to the news of the boat’s departure and that among the names of the passengers were seven from our family,” Al-Batn told Al-Hurra.
Samar did not risk her life and the life of her two children out of thin air. No words can describe the financial situation of her husband, a member of the Lebanese army, whose salary has been eroded due to the collapse of the local currency exchange rate, and after all doors were closed in their faces, the option of leaving her was first as a lifeline for them, but unfortunately, as Her brother says, “She did not reach safety.
“As for Iman, her goal was to reach Germany, where her husband resides, to complete the rest of their lives together with her, while there is no source of livelihood for Kifah in his homeland.”
Al-Batan adds: “My financial situation is not better than them. Since the outbreak of the revolution in Lebanon, my work in the furniture profession has stopped. I am the father of five children, so I had to pay two of them minors to work in a car repair garage. If I had the money required to emigrate, I would not hesitate for a moment to leave this country.”
While the families on board the boat are still waiting for news to reassure them about them, Al-Batn confirms that his brother received a call from Samar yesterday, Wednesday, during which she informed him that she and the boat’s passengers were fine, and they were arrested in Libya awaiting the completion of the competent authorities, which take days for routine procedures to return them to Lebanon. .
However, the brother of one of the passengers doubts the words of the stomach, and he expresses in an interview with the “Al-Hurra” website his fears that one of those involved in smuggling was the one who asked him to reassure the people when he sensed that their patience was running out and that the case began to buzz in the media, which confirms his fears, as he says. He refused to share with us the phone number from which Samar called.”
Samar did not inform her brother whether they were arrested by official authorities or pirates, according to him, but the “Alert Phone” organization revealed on its website that “Libyan gunmen kidnapped migrants on August 18,” explaining that she was in contact with the passengers of the boat. When they reached the search and rescue area in Malta they told her that “a Libyan-flagged vessel was chasing them and armed men were firing at them, wounding one person on board”.
Several European Union authorities have been informed of the serious emergency, according to the organization.
“We were told by the passengers that one of their engines had stopped working after being shot at by the Libyan forces. This was the last contact we had with them,” she added. Over the next hours, the organization tried to re-establish contact with the boat, but to no avail. It also tried to mobilize rescue efforts by repeatedly inquiring with the European authorities whether rescue measures had been initiated, but also to no avail.
“We are trying to find more information about people who fled Lebanon and reached the search and rescue areas in two European Union member states, only to be forced to go to Libya, where they are at risk of facing extreme forms of violence,” the organization stressed.
The disaster continues
As in every summer, the smuggling mafia is active in routing the “death boats” towards Europe, which has become the only hope for survival in light of the tragic social and economic conditions that Lebanon and Syria are going through alike, and “the first responsible for the situation that the Lebanese reached and his preference to face death in The sea has to live in humiliation and deprivation, they are the political ones,” according to what the head of the Association of Akkar Mayors Associations, the mayor of Benin, Zaher al-Kassar, stresses.
And he added in an interview with Al-Hurra website: “The same is the case for the Syrian refugees besieged in Lebanon with hate speech, harassment and threats to forcibly return them to their country. Indeed, there are Syrians fleeing their homeland through the Lebanese shores.”
No one believes that the Lebanese are comfortable and happy, as it appeared during Amr Diab’s concert a few days ago. “A few thousand citizens do not reflect the bitter reality, and that there are people who die because they are unable to pay the hospitalization bill, and that many families sleep with empty stomachs because they do not have the price of a loaf of bread,” he said.
Mokhtar Benin called on the Lebanese authorities to intervene immediately to return the detainees in Libya.
So far, the Lebanese army does not have any data on the case, as confirmed by a security source to the “Al-Hurra” website, while the head of the High Relief Commission, Major General Muhammad Khair, was not assigned to follow up on it, according to what he indicated in a contact with the “Al-Hurra” website.
The Libyan Beladi Foundation for Human Rights is following up on the case, and according to what its executive director, Tareq Lamloum, told Al-Hurra, “We contacted the Alarm Phone organization, and it informed us that the information it obtained confirms their detention in the port of Benghazi, and it promised to release them.”
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2023-08-24 19:38:18
