Police Arrest Palestinian Would-be Migrants in Tripoli

The Internal Security Forces arrested on Wednesday scores of Palestinians while trying to leave the port of the northern city of Tripoli on a migrant boat, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The ISF Intelligence Branch made the arrest of 40 Palestinians, including women, who reside in the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, said NNA.

Police also apprehended the boat's owner, it said.

The final destination of the migrants was Germany, the agency added.

Last month, nine people, including women and children, were killed when a boat smuggling Palestinians from Tripoli sank in Turkey's territorial waters, one of the survivors said.

The survivor told his relatives that the boat was carrying 40 Palestinians from Syrian camps, mainly Yarmuk in Damascus, who had taken refuge in Palestinian shantytowns in northern Lebanon.

But Tripoli Port authorities denied the vessel started its journey from the facility and it was not clear if the final destination of the migrants was Turkey.

G.K.

M.T.