People-Smuggling Network Arrested in Southern Lebanon
Army Intelligence arrested on Tuesday a people-smuggling network in Lebanon, reported LBCI television.
It said that the 13-member network was arrested in southern Lebanon.
The ring was responsible for illegally smuggling people to several countries, including nations of eastern Europe, it added.
On September 27, a ferry traveling from Indonesia to Australia and transporting 68 Lebanese asylum-seekers sank off the Indonesia coast.
Twenty-eight travelers died in the incident, 18 survived, while at least 29 were still missing.
On Sunday, the survivors returned to Lebanon.
The asylum-seekers were victims of a people-smuggling network that carried out illegal travel to different countries.
They were lured by an Iraqi called Abu Saleh, who has previously helped around 500 Lebanese, mainly from the impoverished northern region of Akkar, to flee to Australia.
Several members of his ring from Akkar and the northern city of Tripoli have been paid commissions to convince people to seek asylum in Australia
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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