Lebanese migrant boat-accident death toll touched three digits as Syrian authorities have recovered 100 dead bodies from the boat that capsized off Syria last week, reports AFP.
It’s reported as one of the deadliest recent shipwrecks in the eastern Mediterranean.
The first bodies were found last Thursday and only 20 people were rescued out of as many as 150 passengers. Slowly, the death toll increased and more than two-third found dead.
"The number of victims of the Lebanese boat has reached 100 people so far after another body was recovered from the sea," Syrian Arab News Agency on Monday quoted the head of Syrian ports Samer Kbrasli as saying.
All survivors have been discharged from hospital, SANA said.
Nearly three years of deep economic crisis have turned Lebanon into a Launchpad for migrants, with its own citizens joining Syrian and Palestinian refugees desperate to flee rising poverty via dangerous sea voyages.
Since 2020, Lebanon has seen a spike in the number of migrants attempting the perilous crossing in jam-packed boats to reach Europe.
The UN children's agency UNICEF said that 10 children appeared to be "among those who lost their lives", adding that "years of political instability and economic crisis in Lebanon have pushed many children and families into poverty".
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
