Shipwreck survivor, Fouad Hoblos, who was imprisoned after a boat carrying migrants departed Lebanon and sank off the coast of Tartus on Sept. 22, was released and welcomed by his family. (Courtesy of Michel Hallak)
BEIRUT — Syrian authorities have released a shipwreck survivor who was arrested after a boat carrying migrants departed Lebanon and sank off the coast of Tartus on Sept. 22, killing more than 100 people, according to a statement by Tripoli's Sunni cleric Bilal Shaaban.
It is not clear exactly on which day the survivor, who is Lebanese national Fouad Hoblos, was released.
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, several survivors were detained by Syrian authorities and later released. 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.
It is not clear why authorities detained Hoblos, and the Syrian embassy was not immediately available for comment.
Friday's statement said Sunni cleric Shaaban had "visited Damascus at the head of a delegation, where he received Hoblos and worked to deliver him to his family in Akkar, after completing the procedures with the Lebanese and Syrian authorities at the countries' borders." The statement added that Hoblos had arrived in North Lebanon and "was welcomed by his village and his family."
Following the shipwreck, Lebanese and Syrian authorities released information 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.