Jumblat Urges Official Action to Ease Suffering of Akkar in Light of Asylum-Seekers Tragedy

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat lamented on Monday the poor state of affairs in the northern region of Akkar, saying that officials have neglected the impoverished area, whose suffering was highlighted in light of last week's sinking of an asylum-seekers' boat off the Indonesian coast.

He urged in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anba website officials to “take immediate action that would send positive messages to the residents of Akkar.”

“Akkar has been forgotten and left to its fate. It has the highest level of poverty in Lebanon, with some areas lacking electricity,” he remarked.

“The desperation of its people has forced several of them to escape poverty to death after all possibilities of life were no longer available to them,” he noted.

He attributed the current situation in Akkar to the state's negligence and failure to come up with a complete development plan for it.

“The situation in the northern region also reminds us of the poverty in the northern city of Tripoli,” Jumblat said.

“Why don't officials turn their attention to the city and revitalize its economy?” he wondered.

Twenty-eight Lebanese asylum-seekers drowned in a boat sinking off Indonesia on Friday as they sought to sail to Australia.

Many more are still feared missing.

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 hail from Akkar where thousands of Syrians have sought refuge from the 30-month that has wracked their country.

Media reports said that the asylum-seekers were the victims of people smugglers who prey on them and Syrian refugees seeking to better their lives.