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A Syrian mother hugs her child - here after a rescue by Spanish helpers off Tunisia
Photo: Petros Karadjias/AP
Again and again, migrants get into distress during the daring crossing across the Mediterranean Sea.
At least 34 people have died when a refugee boat sank off the coast of Syria.
The Ministry of Health in Damascus announced that their bodies had been recovered from the port city of Tartus.
20 survivors would be treated in the hospital.
Information on the nationality of the victims was initially not given.
According to official information, survivors reported that the boat had left Lebanon a few days ago.
Tartus is the southernmost of Syria's major ports and is located around 50 kilometers north of the Lebanese port city of Tripoli.
Over the past year, Lebanon has seen a surge in the number of migrants making the dangerous crossing to Europe in overcrowded boats from its shores.
The destination of most boats is EU member Cyprus, which is 175 kilometers away.
Dangerous escape routes
Many of the refugees leaving Lebanon for the EU across the Mediterranean are Syrians.
The worsening economic crisis in Lebanon has led to more and more Lebanese fleeing.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates the number of dead and missing on the flight route across the Mediterranean at 1,301 people since the beginning of the year, 114 of them in the eastern Mediterranean.
Most people disappear along the central route in the Mediterranean.
This route from North Africa to Europe is considered the most dangerous migration route in the world.
According to IOM estimates, there were a total of 2,048 dead and missing in the Mediterranean last year, 1,553 of them in the central Mediterranean alone.
mrc/AFP
