The Lebanese Army indicates that it intercepted a ship leaving Cyprus with 69 Syrian nationals on board trying to leave Lebanon from the locality of Arida.
A smuggler was also arrested during the operation.
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.
