(ANSA) - DELHI, SEPTEMBER 24 - At least 86 migrants from Lebanon drowned off the Syrian coast after their boat sank, declared the official Damascus news agency.
According to Syrian authorities, around 150 people, mostly Lebanese and Syrian and Palestinian refugees, were aboard the small boat that sank Thursday off the western Syrian port city of Tartous.
"The number of people who died in the shipwreck has risen to 86", Sana Samer Kbrasli, director general of Syrian ports, told news agency Sana Samer Kbrasli on Saturday, adding that 20 migrants have been rescued.
Ten children were among the survivors, UNICEF said.
This is the deadliest shipwreck in recent years between Syria, ravaged by more than 11 years of conflict, and Lebanon, which according to the World Bank is in the midst of one of the worst global economic crises since 1850. Many of the ship's Libanese passengers are from poor areas. in the north of the country, including the city of Tripoli, which has become a hub for illegal immigration into the Mediterranean, especially for Syrian refugees, but increasingly also for Lebanese.
(HANDLE).
