Army Day at the Jounieh Festival 2019. Photo credit: François el Bacha for Libnanews.com. All rights reserved

The Lebanese Army says it intercepted a boat 10 nautical miles off the city of Tripoli. On board were 60 people, including 59 Syrian nationals who were trying to reach Cyprus.

As a reminder, this attempt comes the day after another attempt. 51 people had tried to cross the eastern Mediterranean to the island of Aphrodite .

As a reminder, more than a million and a half Syrian refugees are currently in Lebanon. Their situation has worsened with the economic crisis which is hitting the Land of the Cedars hard. Besides the fact that 75% of the Lebanese population currently live below the poverty line, 90% of the refugees are also believed to be there.

This is not the first time that such an attempt has failed, this information coming as many individuals attempt to board real boat-people from Lebanon to the island of Cyprus, considered to be the gateway entry into the European Union, due to the economic crisis that Lebanon is currently going through.

As early as last year, the Cypriot authorities indicated that they were worried about the increase in the number of attempted illegal crossings from Lebanon to the island.

As a reminder, Lebanon is home to more than one million Syrian refugees and 500,000 Palestinian refugees, populations made very vulnerable to the economic crisis that the country of the cedars is currently going through, while more than 65% of the population finds itself under the poverty line is with less than 6 dollars a day, a figure up 12.7% for the year 2020 alone, indicates a recent United Nations report.

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