BEIRUT, Lebanon: A child died and 45 people were rescued on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) after a boat carrying around 60 migrants sank off Lebanon, where deadly sea crossings have spiraled due to an economic crisis. 'Forty-five people have been rescued and the corpse of one child,' has been retrieved from the boat that sank near the coast of the northern city of Tripoli, Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamie told a local broadcaster. He said around 60 people were on the vessel carrying illegal migrants out of Lebanon. Lebanon, a country of around 6 million people, is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is on a scale usually associated with wars. The UN refugee agency says at least 1,570 people, 186 of them Lebanese, left or tried to leave illegally by sea from Lebanon between January and November 2021.
