Various local media outlets have reported that the number of Syrian asylum seekers who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea due to a boat capsizing off the Libyan coast last Friday has reached seven people.
According to most media reports, a boat carrying 75 migrants, including Syrians, departed from the coast of the Libyan city of Zuwara towards the coast of Italy last Friday (November 5). It was noted that the boat is permitted to carry no more than 40 passengers.
Over the past two days, local news accounts on social media have circulated information about the drowning of a group of Syrian young men in the Mediterranean Sea during their journey to Europe. The boat sank off the Libyan-Tunisian coast three days after setting off, resulting in multiple casualties, including five Syrian young men from the town of Kanaker in the Damascus countryside. They are identified as Musab Al-Masri, Issam Jabal, Wissam Aweij, Muhammad Qastallawi, and Hudhayfah Barbour. Additionally, two other Syrian young men from Daraa, namely Wissam Al-Jabbawi and Wael Jalam, were among the victims.
The Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) has placed responsibility on the Assad regime for displacing Syrians and forcing them onto perilous journeys, citing repressive actions, ongoing human rights violations, and continued detention and torture in regime prisons.
The SOC emphasized that the risks faced by Syrian people seeking asylum underscore the impossibility of living under the rule of the Assad regime, its criminal approach, and the actions of sectarian militias loyal to it. This, in turn, challenges the regime’s claim that areas under its control are safe.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
