Foreign Ministry: Delegation Will Soon Travel to Indonesia to Ensure Asylum-Seekers' Safe Return
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
The Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that a Lebanese delegation will travel to Indonesia soon in order to ensure the safe return of the survivors of last week's asylum-seekers ferry sinking.
Foreign Ministry General Secretary Ambassador Wafiq Ruhaimi said the delegation, headed by High Relief Commission chief Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Bashir, will travel to Indonesia within 24 hours to accompany the survivors on their trip back to Lebanon.
The delegation will also include a number of officials from the Foreign Ministry, a representative of the General Security, and a DNA specialists.
Speaking after a meeting at the Foreign Ministry on the boat sinking, Ruhaimi added: “Fifteen survivors have been identified, while three others are receiving treatment at hospital.”
Moreover, he explained that the High Relief Commission will provide airline tickets to all Lebanese in Indonesia who are seeking to return to their homeland.
They include 20 Lebanese, including six prisoners who were imprisoned by Indonesian authorities for violating their residency permits.
Furthermore, Ruhaimi revealed that the survivors of last week's ferry sinking have been placed in a safe location away from the people-smuggling mafia that led to their disaster.
They have been placed under the protection of Indonesian authorities and the International Immigration Organization in the city of Sukabumi, he added.
Lebanon has also requested that security around them be stepped up, he said without elaborating.
“The number of Lebanese on the ill-fated ferry is still unknown because several other asylum-seekers from different nationalities were also on board,” he explained.
The identities of the corpses that were recovered from the sea can only be discovered through DNA tests due to the decomposition they suffered from being in the water, stated Ruhaimi.
Thirty-three corpses from different nationalities have so far been recovered from the sea, he continued.
The Foreign Ministry meanwhile said in a separate statement that the names of the Lebanese survivors have been registered and their personal needs have are being attended to.
The Indonesian immigration ministry has also been contacted in order to speed up their return to Lebanon.
The High Relief Commission will work on returning them to Lebanon within the upcoming days, it said.
It also revealed that 18 Lebanese asylum-seekers were supposed to be on board the sunken ferry, but they encountered various obstacles that prevented them from traveling on the vessel.
These asylum-seekers have expressed their wish to return to Lebanon and they are currently residing in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
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 conflict 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.
01 October 2013, 17:34
14
This issue is very sad. But if we look at it objectively, I dont see why the state should be involved. People have to start taking responsibility of their lives. People can barely afford to get married, but yet they do get married, they do get 8 chidren, they deal with a shady mafioso to ship them out and die. Then they come blaming the state. Like the "pilgrims" promenading in syria who blame the state.
What about getting one child, getting your wife to work, living on a budget and staying in lebanon?
01 October 2013, 17:51
14
speakfreely. how did they get neglected? Who neglected them? What did the state do to you? I know it did nothing to me.
01 October 2013, 17:36
10
Please also collect the hundreds of other Lebanese waiting in Indonesia to make this illegal trip. There are also thousands of Iranians, Iraqi's , Afghans, African men waiting to come by boat.
WAKE UP - the streets are not paved with gold in Australia !!
Life is difficult and Australians have to work hard to maintain a reasonable quality of life. Australian taxpayers are not responsible to pay billions of dollars to support illegal immigrants and their extended families.
If immigrants come and live in peace legally you are welcome but Australians have no more sympathy for those who bring violence from their homelands to Australia. Also, Australia is not a Muslim country and if you want to live under these conditions do not come to Australia - choose a country where your own values are represented.
01 October 2013, 17:38
01
What do you call a person who is treated like a gofer by those who enjoy keeping him impoverished and a constant panhandler and whose services are needed once every four years for a brief day or two only to be dumped and forgotten until four years later? A Hariri Sanni idiot, of course. alla yer7am mawtekon ya idiots. mesh ra7 btenzakar bass akid ra7 bten3ed ya idiots.
01 October 2013, 17:56
00
Better future so they knowingly risk their lives ??? That's absurd. One man had 9 kids. Come on that's ridiculous in itself why do these goats have so many kids knowing they cannot provide. Even a wealthy man in Australia US etc would have a hard time feeding and educating 9 kids - oh but wait, most of his kds were girls who probably didn't need an education and be married and pregnant by 15:/
01 October 2013, 18:13
02
of course it is their right to do what they want. It is also their right to commit financial suicide to get into this world 8 children they cant afford. Or their right to commit suicide. But then let them not come crying to the state and blocking roads. These people need to be educated to take responsibility and use condoms instead of having all the republic catering to their irresponsability.
China lifted 400,000,000 people out of poverty by doing the one child policy. that is 400 million people who live in dignity and enjoy middle class. We cant do that here because of our turbaned medieval cartoon characters.
01 October 2013, 21:40
01
Agreed. Freedom includes the freedom to take risks, and bearing the consequences too, of course. Blaming the state is not but a cheap shot.
02 October 2013, 02:39
00
This is a respectable move by the Lebanese government to support and assist these Lebanese citizens in Indonesia. It demonstrates decency. The Australian government sent a Qantas jet to evacuate Australians from Lebanon during outbreak of war some years ago. So these Lebanese citizens deserve equal treatment. They were only trying to do what every human wants to achieve - to have a chance living life in a peaceful environment.
02 October 2013, 03:25
00
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