(Credit: AFP/Illustration photo)
BEIRUT — Sunday evening saw yet another episode of child abandonment: a baby boy found, alone, on the side of the road behind a petrol station in Tripoli's Qobbeh neighborhood.
According to Annahar, a man discovered the roughly one-month-old boy around 9:30 p.m. Sunday after he heard crying in the street. He then reached out to the ISF, who asked him to bring the child to the Tripoli Governmental Hospital.
Contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, the hospital's director, Nassar Adra, said the child is "in stable condition."
"The examinations carried out are good, and we are still awaiting some results," he commented, adding that the infant will remain in hospital pending a decision by the judiciary on his custody.
Security forces deployed to the scene where the boy had been found and launched an investigation.
Social Affairs intervenes
The boy will soon be transferred to a "safe place," a Social Affairs Ministry source told L'Orient-Le Jour on condition of anonymity. They did not elaborate on where that place would be.
"When a child is found abandoned, the Public Prosecutor's Office and juvenile court judges open a judicial protection file. The Ministry's role is to help find a safe place for the child and ensure that his or her rights are protected," the official explained.
On July 19, two babies aged three months and one year were found abandoned in a box under a bridge near Nahr Ibrahim in the Jbeil area. A similar case had occurred the day before, when an infant was found abandoned in a bag on a Tripoli street.
Additional reporting by Michel Hallak.