Two children have reportedly died in an attempt to reach Cyprus in a small fishing boat as more Lebanese citizens attempt to reach European shores.
The boat is believed to have become stranded on the Mediterranean Sea for several days, causing the young children - one of them a two-year-old boy - to die from heat, hunger and thirst earlier this month, according to reports by the BBC and AP news agency.
"The pain and suffering this family would have endured to drive them to this, only to culminate in such a tragic end, is truly unimaginable," Jennifer Moorehead, the organisation's Lebanon director, said in a statement. "It’s a desperate situation for those children which is forcing their parents to take desperate measures to enable them to reach safety."Mohammad Ghandour said Lebanon's economic crisis left him unable to feed his seven children and gave him no choice but to try to reach European shores.
The increase has worried Cypriot authorities, especially given the global pandemic. The island is the closest European Union member state to the Middle East and has seen a gradual rise in arrivals of undocumented migrants and refugees in the past two years, as other routes have become more difficult to cross.
Afaf Adulhamid, whose son Mohammed Khaldoun, 27, went missing at sea as he tried to reach Cyprus, cries and prays for his return on the coast of Tripoli city."I didn't think they would send us back," he said."They should have just let us die in the water. It's better than coming back here."
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