A boat in Tripoli used for irregular migration. (Credit: Twitter/@LebarmyOfficial/File)
BEIRUT — The Lebanese Army announced Tuesday that it thwarted people aboard a boat attempting an irregular sea migration the previous day from the al-Maarad port in Tripoli, and had arrested 84 Syrian people and one Lebanese person, according to the state-run National News Agency.
The army added that the detainees were handed over to the relevant authorities and that it had launched an investigation.
Many people have been trying to leave Lebanon by irregular sea journeys amid a worsening economic crisis. At least 60 passengers onboard a migrant boat that departed from north Lebanon on Sept. 3 were stranded at sea for days between the Greek and Maltese coasts before the Greek coast guards rescued them. A four-year-old Syrian child died while being transferred to a Greek hospital.
In April, a migrant boat with dozens of people aboard sank off the coast of Tripoli, after a Lebanese Army vessel intercepted it. Around 40 people were killed, and several more are still missing beneath the sea.