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Syrian authorities have recovered the bodies of at least 61 people who were aboard a migrant boat that sank off its coast after sailing from Lebanon earlier this week, a Lebanese minister said on Friday, as search efforts continued.
Ali Hamiye said 20 survivors were being treated in Syrian hospitals, reports Reuters.
Lebanon has seen a spike in migration driven by a devastating financial meltdown that has plunged swathes of the population into poverty over the last three years. In addition to Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian refugees have been among those trying to leave the country by sea.
Syrian authorities began finding bodies off the coast of Tartus on Thursday afternoon. Its transport ministry has cited survivors saying the boat left from Lebanon's northern Minyeh region on Tuesday with between 120 and 150 people onboard, bound for Europe
"It sank. I don't have details of how," Hamiye said.
Samer Qubrusli, the Syrian director-general of ports, said rescue efforts were continuing on Friday.
The number of people who have left or tried to leave Lebanon by sea nearly doubled in 2021 from 2020, the United Nations refugee agency said earlier this month.
It rose again by more than 70 per cent in 2022 compared with the same period last year.
The Lebanese army said on Wednesday it had rescued 55 people on board one malfunctioning boat in the country's territorial waters and towed it back to shore.
In April, a migrant boat that set off from near Tripoli sank during an interception by the Lebanese navy off the country's coast.
About 80 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian migrants were on board, of whom some 40 were rescued, seven were confirmed dead and around 30 officially remain missing.