Lebanese Officials Follow Up on Sinking of Asylum-Seekers Boat Off Indonesia

Lebanese officials followed up on Saturday the sinking of an asylum boat off the coast of Indonesia's main island Java, which killed at least 21 people, including 14 Lebanese.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati said after holding talks with a delegations from the relatives of the victims that the Lebanese charge d'affaires at the Lebanese embassy in Jakarta was tasked with issuing passports for all the survivors and return them to Lebanon.

“All the necessary measures were taken to return the survivors and their deceased relatives from Indonesia,” Miqati told the delegation.

The boat capsized and sank in waters off West Java's Sukabumi district after being hit by high waves Friday. Survivors said about 100 people were aboard the vessel.

The delegation told reporters after meeting with Miqati that 14 bodies that belong to Lebanese nationals were pulled from the water.

The number of the Lebanese nationals, who were killed in the accident, reached on Saturday 40, while 25 others where rescued.

“Miqati pledged that the Lebanese state will not neglect the incident,” the delegation said.

For his part, Speaker Nabih Berri expressed remorse over the “disaster.”

He offered his condolences to the families of the victims, hoping that Lebanon would offer it's people with a better life.

The speaker followed up the accident with the competent authorities.

Survivors said they were trying to get to Australia's Christmas Island, closer to Java than mainland Australia, and are the latest to cross the treacherous stretch of water that has claimed hundreds of asylum-seekers' lives in recent years.

Some 120 asylum-seekers from Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen were believed to be on the boat.

Twenty-eight people were rescued and taken to the Sukabumi immigration office for identification, Brig. Gen. Tatang Zainudin, the National Search and Rescue Agency's operation chief, said. Among those rescued were three Lebanese nationals who were found early Saturday after being stranded on an island about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from where the boat sank, Zainudin said.

He said 21 bodies were pulled from the water Friday afternoon, including seven children.

The general prosecution lawyer, Charbel Abou Samra, opened an investigation on Saturday into the incident to reveal those who lured the Lebanese to pay a large sum of money to illegally immigrate to Australia.

Media reports said Friday that the victims had tasked a person, known as Abu Saleh, to ensure their safe passage to Australia in exchange for about $10,000 per person.

Local officials in Akkar said many of the Syrians have been lured by exploitative travel agents into making the high-risk sea trip to Australia in search of asylum.

Impoverished Lebanese from the Akkar region have also signed up for the treacherous voyages, hoping for a better life in Australia, the officials said.

"There were 68 Lebanese on board," Haytham Jomaa, who is in charge of immigration affairs at the Lebanese foreign ministry, told Agence France Presse.

He said 18 of the Lebanese survived the ordeal while 21 bodies were retrieved from the sea.

Lebanese mother Nazime Bakour, 32, spoke of the tragedy to AFP after she was rescued by fishermen along with her son. She lost her husband and two other children, a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old.

Bakour, speaking in broken English, said the boat was struck by a massive wave and broke into pieces.

"I have to swim. My husband swim very well, but the boat break and hit his head," she said, adding that she saw her surviving son in the water and managed to grab him.

Most of the Lebanese asylum-seekers hail from the town of Kabiit in Akkar, an impoverished and remote district in northern Lebanon across the border from Syria.