BEIRUT, April 24, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - A child died and 45 people were rescued
Saturday after a boat carrying around 60 migrants sank off Lebanon, where
deadly sea crossings have spiralled due to an economic crisis.

  "Forty-five people have been rescued and the corpse of one child," has been
retrieved from the boat that sank near the coast of the northern city of
Tripoli, Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamie told a local
broadcaster.

  He said around 60 people were on the vessel carrying illegal migrants out
of Lebanon.

  "The search is ongoing," Hamie said.

  The Lebanese Red Cross said it had sent 10 ambulances to Tripoli.

  An AFP correspondent said the army had closed off the port, allowing entry
only to ambulances which were zipping in and out.

  The families of some of the passengers gathered to check on their loves
ones but they were denied access.

  "This happened because of the politicians who forced unemployed Lebanese to
leave the country," said one man waiting for news of a relative outside the
port.

  Lebanon, a country of around six million people, is grappling with an
unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is on a scale usually
associated with wars.

  The currency has lost more than 90 percent of its purchasing power and the
majority of the population lives below the poverty line.

  The UN refugee agency says at least 1,570 people, 186 of them Lebanese,
left or tried to leave illegally by sea from Lebanon between January and
November 2021.

  Most were hoping to reach European Union member Cyprus, an island 175
kilometres (110 miles) away.

  This is up from 270 passengers, including 40 Lebanese, in 2019.

  Most of those trying to leave Lebanon by sea are Syrian refugees, but
Lebanese have increasingly joined their ranks.