'No Path ahead But the Sea': Lebanese Join Migrant Flow to EU

Bilal Moussa, 34, smokes near the waters off Tripoli that almost swallowed him -- but he vows to try again to flee Lebanon's poverty (AFP/JOSEPH EID)
Bilal Moussa, 34, smokes near the waters off Tripoli that almost swallowed him -- but he vows to try again to flee Lebanon's poverty (AFP/JOSEPH EID)
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'No Path ahead But the Sea': Lebanese Join Migrant Flow to EU

Bilal Moussa, 34, smokes near the waters off Tripoli that almost swallowed him -- but he vows to try again to flee Lebanon's poverty (AFP/JOSEPH EID)
Bilal Moussa, 34, smokes near the waters off Tripoli that almost swallowed him -- but he vows to try again to flee Lebanon's poverty (AFP/JOSEPH EID)

If he wasn't making good money smuggling irregular migrants to the European Union by sea, Ibrahim himself might have joined the growing exodus from crisis-hit Lebanon.

"If I didn't work in this profession, I would have left, just like so many other people," said the 42-year-old trafficker, who asked to use a pseudonym when he spoke to AFP in the northern city of Tripoli.

"Maybe I would have turned to someone to smuggle me out," he said, his face hidden by an anti-Covid surgical mask and a hoodie.

Lebanon, in the throes of a brutal economic crisis, is no longer just a launchpad for Syrian refugees and other foreign migrants.

Its own desperate citizens now also risk drowning in the Mediterranean in their quest for a better life.

Ibrahim argues that, while having smuggled around 100 Lebanese nationals to Europe since 2019 makes him no angel, there is virtue in helping his compatriots.

"I get them out of here, out of this beggar's life," he said. "At least if they are put in a camp, they can eat and drink with dignity."

Ibrahim said he took pride in taking only Lebanese nationals on his boats, and even then, only those who can produce civil registry documents.

"I get requests from Palestinians and Syrians but I am responsible only for my own countrymen," said Ibrahim, a former school bus driver whose tumbling income led him to people smuggling.

"There are many Lebanese who want to leave... They are ready to sell their houses, sell their cars, sell everything, just to make it out."

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

The currency has crashed, people's purchasing power has plummeted and the monthly minimum wage is now worth $22.

The UN's refugee agency UNHCR said at least 1,570 individuals, including 186 Lebanese nationals, had embarked or tried to embark on illicit sea journeys from Lebanon between January and November 2021.

Most were hoping to reach European Union member Cyprus, an island 175 kilometers (109 miles) away.

This is up from 270 passengers, including 40 Lebanese in 2019, UNHCR spokesperson Lisa Abou Khaled told AFP.

"In previous years, the vast majority of passengers were Syrians, while in 2020 and 2021, a notable number of Lebanese joined these movements," she said.

Lives have been lost, including those of two little children, during attempted crossings over the past two years, though there is little data and no exact toll.

The Lebanese army said it is diligently monitoring the 225 kilometer coastline with radar systems and patrol boats.

A joint maritime operations room facilitates coordination between naval forces and other security agencies as well authorities in Cyprus.

"In 2020, the navy succeeded in seizing about 20 boats and detaining 596 people," the army said.

The army said that "Lebanese nationals who know their way around the country's coastline" are the most common smuggling culprits.

They include Ibrahim who said he organized an illicit sea crossing to Europe in 2019 for a Lebanese family of five now residing in Germany.

Since then, he said he has organized nine others, including his latest in September which saw 25 Lebanese nationals arrive in Italy.

With prices ranging from $2,500 per person for a trip to Cyprus to up to $7,000 to get to Italy, Ibrahim said he can make up to $5,000 profit from a single boat journey.

"We used to have to advertise our trips," he said. "Now people come running to us."

- 'No future' -
Sitting on a bench on Tripoli's coast, Bilal Moussa, 34, was watching the giant waves that almost swallowed him in November.

Taking a long drag from a cigarette, the father of three said he would try again.

"There is no future here, not for us and not for our children," said Moussa, who quit his supermarket job because his monthly salary of $55 barely paid for his commute.

In September, Moussa decided to attempt the sea voyage to Italy.

He sold his car and borrowed $1,500 from a friend to cover the $4,000 for the trip.

On November 19, Moussa packed a small duffel bag and left his home in the Dinniyeh region without even telling his wife.

When he reached the Tripoli meeting point, he found around 90 passengers clambering onto a truck that would drive them to the Qalamoun region from where they would depart.

They included 15 Palestinians and 10 Syrians, while the rest were Lebanese.

"We had 35 children on board, and around 20 women," he said.

Two hours after the 18-meter (60-foot) craft set sail, a navy boat took chase and ordered the captain back.

Their overcrowded craft started taking on water from the wake of the patrol boat, but the captain sped off and lost his tail after an hour-long white-knuckle chase.

The next terrifying moment came when the engine broke down and the boat started to sink, in the dark.

Panicked passengers started throwing suitcases and fuel tanks overboard.

Moussa and others contacted relatives back home to send help, which arrived several hours later.

A Lebanese army ship came and towed them back ashore, where passengers were interrogated and then released.

"I felt defeated because I came back, because I didn't make it," Moussa said.

"But I am going to leave again... We have no path ahead but the sea."



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.