A general view of Tartous, Syria. (Credit : AFP/Illustration)
BEIRUT — Syrian authorities are set to release a shipwreck survivor who was imprisoned after a boat carrying migrants departed Lebanon and sank off the coast of Tartus on Sept. 22, killing more than 100 people, a security source told L'Orient Today on Wednesday.
The survivor is Lebanese national Fouad Hoblos.
The migrant boat shipwreck was one of the deadliest in the eastern Mediterranean. Of the 150 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian passengers on board, only 20 survivors were rescued. Twelve of them are of Syrian nationality— from Latakia, Idlib and Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
After the boat capsized on Sept. 22, several survivors were detained and were later released. It is not clear why Syrian authorities continued to detain Hoblos. The Syrian embassy was not immediately available for comment.
SOHR said most of the migrants fled mandatory military service or are dissidents of the Syrian regime. According to testimonies, many were trying to escape government areas because of dire economic conditions.
Following the tragedy, Lebanese and Syrian authorities released information about the shipwreck in bits and pieces, leaving families of the missing in confusion amid many rumors that their family members were alive and being held by the Lebanese Army or Syrian authorities.
Relatives of the missing were particularly concerned about the way survivors were treated by the Syrian authorities. Because they fled the country illegally, they risked disappearing into the regime’s jails.
Following Lebanon's economic collapse, a rising number of Syrian and Palestinian refugees — as well as Lebanese nationals — have attempted to reach Europe in makeshift boats. Many Lebanese migrants come from the north, especially from the city of Tripoli, which has become a hub for illegal immigration in the Mediterranean.
Reporting contributed by Michel Hallak.