People smugglers arrested as Lebanon stems irregular migration
Lebanon confirmed on October 2 that it arrested two Syrian nationals involved in people smuggling operations, reports The National News.
The two individuals had long been carrying out the lucrative operations, admitting to asking for thousands of USD per person to organise boat trips to send people from the region to Greece and Italy.
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces said that the pair have smuggled thousands of people to the European continent and were arrested in Beqqa Valley, a valley in the country’s eastern part near the Syrian border, as they entered Syria illegally.
The two men previously operated in Libya, a hotspot for North African migrants to depart from in an attempt to reach Europe.
According to the Internal Security Forces, they migrated from Libya to Syria as they had arranged a boat journey in which the vessel sank off the coast of Libyan city, Tobruk, resulting in over 70 deaths and a large-scale search and rescue mission having to be carried out by local authorities.
Lebanese authorities have recently toughened their stance on migration, particularly from neighbouring Syria. The Middle Eastern country’s Interior Minister, Bassam Mawlawi scathingly attacked Syrian refugees saying that they pose a threat to Lebanon’s demographics and identity, also adding that the refugee crisis has become unbearable.
Data from June 2023 shows that 1.5 million Syrian refugees are settled in Lebanon as the ongoing Syrian civil war, which first broke out in 2011, led to many fleeing the country as many have went to neighbouring nations in the Middle East or have settled in Europe.
In recent weeks, the authorities claimed to have intercepted thousands of crossings through the countries border with Syria.
The Central Mediterranean route has become increasingly dangerous. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) noted that since the beginning of this year, 2,066 went missing whilst crossing, a sharp rise from 2022’s figures of around 1,417.
In mid-September, five Syrian people smugglers were arrested in Nabatieh, a city in southern Lebanon. It was alleged that they were enabling border crossings between Lebanon and Syria via the Wadi Khaled region.
THE NATIONAL NEWS.
