Tripoli Man behind Asylum-Seekers Trips to Australia on 'Death Boats'
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Lebanese asylum-seekers who died when a boat sank off Indonesia were the victims of people smugglers who prey on them and Syrian refugees seeking to better their lives.
The death toll from the sinking on Friday of the Australia-bound boat off the coast of Java has risen to 28, with many more still feared missing, according to Indonesian police.
The Lebanese foreign ministry said there were 68 Lebanese, including children, on board the ill-fated vessel and that 18 survived the ordeal while at least 29 were still missing.
Most of them came from Akkar, an impoverished province of north Lebanon where thousands of Syrians have sought refuge from the 30-month that has wracked their country.
"Illegal migration has increased with the influx of Syrian refugees," a Lebanese security source told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.
"Criminal networks have started to focus on Syrians but also on Lebanese who want to emigrate," he said of the people smugglers.
According to the source, around 250 people, including Syrians and Lebanese, have since March paid huge sums of money to people smugglers for trips to Australia.
Relatives of Lebanese who have emigrated through such networks in recent months told AFP that a Tripoli-based man organizes the journeys from Lebanon to Australia through Indonesia.
The smugglers' contact in Indonesia is an Iraqi man known only as Abu Saleh who monitors the arrivals, they said.
The first part of the trip consists in obtaining a visa for Jakarta, which the Indonesian embassy in Lebanon grants Lebanese passport-holders without much difficulty.
Once in Jakarta the migrants are led secretly to main Indonesian island of Java from where they take boats for the high-risk sea trip to Australia seeking asylum.
Lebanese authorities on Saturday arrested a suspect involved in the people smuggling network as part of an investigation ordered by caretaker Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi.
In the northern city of Tripoli, Khaled al-Rai is mourning the loss of his uncle Talal and of his cousins seven-year-old Karim and nine-year-old Nour, who were on the boat that sank Friday.
"They were fleeing conflict and poverty in Tripoli. It seems their fate was to die in Indonesia," Rai said. His aunt Randa and five-year-old cousin Khalil survived the tragedy.
Rai's family flew to Jakarta from the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport in July.
The wanted to escape their home in Bab al-Tabbaneh, an impoverished neighborhood of Tripoli that has been rocked by frequent sectarian fighting linked to the conflict in Syria.
"Their situation was terrible. My uncle was a mechanic. Because of the constant fighting, he hardly ever had work and his house was shot at twice," said Rai.
Fed up and hoping for a better life, he was lured by the people smugglers into selling his garage and taking loans to pay for the family's trip to Australia.
Most of the other victims are from the village of Qabeit in Akkar province.
"In March and April, some 50 residents, among them my 16-year-old son, emigrated (illegally) to Australia through Indonesia," said village mayor Ahmed Darwish.
"I paid $8,000 for his trip. I hesitated, but I know that there isn't any work here. Most young people emigrate, and even more now with the influx of Syrian refugees," Darwish told AFP.
An estimated one million Syrians fleeing their country's brutal war have fled to Lebanon since the conflict erupted in March 2011, and many found refuge in Akkar, exacerbating fragile resources.
Nasr Khodr said his brother Hussein paid a smuggler $40,000 to get to Australia along with his pregnant wife and their eight children.
All but Hussein died in the tragedy, Nasr said.
Qabeit residents said migrants used to try to reach Australia via East Timor but when applying for visas became difficult they turned their attention to Indonesia.
Rai says he is trying to repatriate his aunt and cousin from Indonesia, but "they tore up their passports to be able to seek asylum."
The security source added that "some Lebanese migrants have bought fake Syrian passports off mafias, so that they can apply for asylum."
Refugees from Afghanistan, Iran and Sri Lanka often take routes via Indonesian waters to try to flee their countries.
Thousands of asylum-seekers have traveled by boat to Australia this year, and scores have died trying to make the journey in unseaworthy vessels over the years.
Officials in Indonesia say they fear many people are still missing after the boat carrying would-be refugees also from Jordan and Yemen broke into pieces and sank in rough waters.
29 September 2013, 16:35
78
This is an affront to humanity and deplorable in the strongest sense possible. Absolutely despicable.
Abu Saleh and all of his affiliates should be prosecuted in the harshest possible court and ran under the ground! Stealing 10000 for protection, with 40000 for the trip is just, wow, beyond words!
29 September 2013, 17:50
25
Why blame solely Abu Saleh? The Lebanese government and all political leaders from all sides are responsible for neglecting the people's demands in Akkar, and all of Lebanon, and thinking only about their own pockets. The deceased wouldn't have had to flee the country if the government had given them some attention.
30 September 2013, 15:22
02
why lebanese have to blame others , the government, the italians ... anyone but themselves ?
why no one has the decency to take responsability of his own actions ?
30 September 2013, 15:00
03
ft, I know, weird folk.
Legion, you're right! Abu Saleh is of higher priority right now though. If they stayed in Lebanon they would have lived, Abu Saleh killed them and took $50,000 from each to do it.
29 September 2013, 23:19
76
u r so right Tonino! people r starving in lebanon.... the economy is on stand-by... thanks to hizballa terroristas intervening in syria. lebanon is now part of the war.
29 September 2013, 23:58
88
Lebanon has become infested with over 2 million Palestinian & Syrian Refugees to a point where the Lebanese " themselves " have falling victims of becoming refugees and dying half way around the world in search for a better life..
How unfortunate, to see our President literally begging for money at the UN recently to accommodate the ever growing problem of refugees in Lebanon, yet at the same time the Lebanese themselves are becoming desperate & overwhelmed thus making us all Refugees in our own Land !
The UN should pressure Israel to allow Palestinians back into the West Bank & open up the Golan Heights for the Syrian refugees . Refugees die more everyday than any other weapons used by man so far. What a shame on the UN, what a shame on Israel to sit on the fence & watch from a distance whilst occupying " Stolen " land !
Signed Wolf .
30 September 2013, 13:45
91
See how many "refugees" there are in the US, South America, France, UK, Germany, Scandinavia and many other countries.
However, nobody calls them "refugees" as they have been integrated into the mainstream of the country they have been living in for tens of years.
It is only in Lebanon and some other Arab States that the "refugee" myth has continued for over 60 years.
The only pressure the UN should use is to try and force Lebanon and the
other Arab States (including the Palestinian Authority or State of Palestine - whichever you want to call it) to get over the myth and absorb the descendents of the original refugees into the everyday life of their countries instead of keeping them bottled up in camps.
30 September 2013, 11:13
62
infested is a term used to describe insects not humans show some decency wolf.
30 September 2013, 14:48
05
Australia has a newly elected Government with a new illegal immigration policy. These measures have been taken after more than 50,000 people have arrived illegally in the last 6 years and thousands of men, woman and children have died trying.
NO illegal immigrant arriving by boat will EVER be granted Australian citizenship. ALL illegal boat arrivals are processed offshore and settled in countries other than Australia.
If you pay a people smuggler money - you will end up in a detention camp awaiting settlement in a country other than Australia. GUARANTEED.
DON'T RISK YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIVES.
30 September 2013, 15:08
11
@ phillipo
I can assure that many many Australians consider these boat arrivals as 'economic country shoppers' and not as genuine refugees. The outgoing Foreign minister also acknowledged this as a fact.
Most, if not all these people bypass several safe haven countries to risk their lives on leaky boats and after paying tens of thousands of dollars each to criminals.
Sympathy for refugees who are mainly fit and health young middle eastern males is wearing very thin with the Australian taxpayers, who are funding billions and billions in welfare, housing, healthcare etc.
for people who seek to opportunistically enter Australia illegally.
30 September 2013, 16:23
14
of course bigjohn, KGK knew that one day there would be HA, so he left preemptively. you cant fool an m14er with such artifices
30 September 2013, 16:54
02
If they want to flee the fighting and poverty, that's fine, but why out of all the safer countries of the world do they have to demand to come to Australia other than a life on Centrelink?
30 September 2013, 17:00
51
-..flamethrower..-
when they arrived, they were called refugees, immigrants, outsiders, you name it. it always takes time for sthg to be accepted.
Isn't 65 years time enough?
01 October 2013, 20:39
00
I usually callously disregard inflammatory posts here, but regarding tonnyfaris' particular post here, its amount of Imperialistic bravado, coupled with the sheer ignorance, nativity, and brute imbecility provides me the understanding of how the US has become the * heap it is.
