At Least 94 Migrants Dead After Boat From Lebanon Sinks

At least 94 have died after a boat carrying migrants from Lebanon sank off the coast of Syria. The boat carrying some 150 Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian nationals, including children, left on Tuesday from the port of Minyeh, near Tripoli, and sank in the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday. At least 17 more bodies were recovered on Saturday as a second day of funerals were held for the dead.

The Lebanese Army said in a statement that the country’s security services arrested a man for running a human smuggling network out of the country, who “admitted his involvement in preparing for the last smuggling operation from Lebanon to Italy by sea.”

Lebanon has been used as a launching pad for boatsful of migrants escaping the financial crisis in the country and the civil war in Syria, heading for European Union countries such as Italy. It is the deadliest such shipwreck from Lebanon in recent years.