34 migrants die as boat sinks off Syria

At least 34 migrants lost their lives as a boat carrying them sank off Syria after departıng from Lebanon.

Assad regime authorities said Thursday.

“The number of people found dead stands at 34,” Syria’s health ministry said in a statement, adding that 20 survivors were being treated in a hospital in Tartus.

Tartus is the southernmost of Syria’s main ports, and lies about 50 kilometres north of the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli.
20 survivors under treatment at a Syrian hospital

Syrian authorities initially reported 15 dead, before revising that figure to 28 and, shortly afterwards, revising up by a further six.

Lebanon, a country which hosts more than a million refugees from Syria’s civil war, has been mired in economic crisis for the past three years, prompting a rise in clandestine attempts to leave for the European Union.