Contact has been lost for more than three weeks with migrants who left the Lebanese coast on Dec. 11. (Credit: Mohammaad Sablouh)
BEIRUT — Contact has been lost with more than 80 irregular migrants who left the Lebanese coast on Dec. 11. The boat's captain, who was the only person able to contact his family, said that he is arrested in Cyprus with the other migrants.
Most of the migrants are Syrian and just a few of them are Lebanese. Lebanon hosts around two million Syrian refugees including 800,000 registered with the United Nations. The Lebanese Army often thwarts smuggling operations by sea and arrests the smugglers and would-be migrants.
Alarm Phone: We still don't know where the migrants are
Alarm Phone, an organization committed to the sea rescue of refugees, does not believe that the migrants were arrested and/or deported, according to a post published by the organization on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday. The organization did not specify the reason behind their claim.
After extensive research on this case, we still do not have any relevant information about this group of 85 people who went missing. There have been rumours that they were arrested and/or deported but we believe that this is not the case.
— @alarmphone (@alarm_phone) January 3, 2024
"We are worried that the group has disappeared at sea but have no information to prove this, or confirm any other outcome," Alarm Phone added on Wednesday.
Contacted by L'Orient Today, a source from Alarm Phone said that "the families [of the migrants] are still searching for them without success."
"After being in contact with different organizations and authorities we still could not find any trace of the people," the source added.
Latest account: Group arrested in Cyprus
Lawyer Mohammad Sablouh, the general director of a non-profit company called the Cedar Centre for Legal Studies, told L'Orient Today on Jan. 3 that the migrant boat's captain told his family that he is arrested in Cyprus along with the other migrants.
Despite that, Sablouh is still confused why the other migrants did not inform their families of their arrest if they were truly arrested.
Contact has been lost for more than three weeks with migrants who left the Lebanese coast on Dec. 11. (Credit: Mohammaad Sablouh)
"The Lebanese government must bear responsibility and help us ... it is not possible that no one asks about 85 people," Sablouh said.