Did Syrian Refugees Lose Their Lives At The Hands Of Lebanese Navy?

Strange manner in which a boat carrying Syrian migrants was capsized in sea is raising questions whether the Lebanese Navy did it so to prevent in surge in migrant numbers?

Picture for representation only

Harried Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians looking for a better future find themselves caught in the crossfire of power and rejection as their illegal attempts to escape their country’s misery through sea routes, invariably lands them on their death bed.

A similar incident was reported where 80 Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians, while should have been brought to shore, met in an altercation with the Lebanese navy, only to go down more than five kilometres from the northern port of Tripoli.

According to the Lebanese Navy, some 30 people lost their lives. That same night, some seven bodies were recovered (including a child), while 48 survivors were also pulled from the Mediterranean Sea.

The bodies had sunk deep down on the bed of the sea and were recovered by a submarine. Circumstances of the sinking remain disputed. Survivors say their vessel was rammed by the Lebanese Navy, while the military claims the migrant boat collided with a naval vessel while trying to get away.

The mangled remains of the boat had also sunken down taking with it down several people. He said the crew identified six more bodies inside the sunken vessel and a substantial amount of debris around it. Some people who tried to escape the boat, he assumed, got “tangled in that debris.”

Commander of the Lebanese Navy, Col Haitham Dinnawi, said the video footage taken by the submarine will be handed over to the judiciary as it investigates the sinking.

The April sinking was the greatest migrant tragedy for Lebanon in recent years and put the government further on the defensive at a time when the country is in the grip of a devastating financial collapse.