'Gambit' of the sea: Inside Lebanon's illegal migration networks

Report by Edmond Sassine, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

A year ago, the trend of illegal migration from Lebanon to Italy began to decline. 

The strict Lebanese military measures on the one hand, and the risks and disasters encountered by boats heading towards Europe on the other, constituted the reasons for this decline. 

Meanwhile, the route of illegal migration towards Cyprus flourished. Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian networks were active on this route. 

The majority of "clients" are either Syrians coming directly from Syria through illegal crossings, spending a night in Lebanon, then migrating illegally, or they are Syrians living in Lebanon.

The cost of illegal migration to Cyprus is around $2,500. Additionally, among the migrants on these boats are several Lebanese. 

Some of them are detained in Cyprus, like about eighteen individuals from the Bebnine area. 

In the details: Lebanese and Syrian smuggling network leaders buy the boat and work through network members to secure customers. 

Then, they offer one of the Lebanese fishermen from the area the opportunity to captain the boat for a fee that may reach $10,000.

When the boat captain arrives in Cyprus, he either reveals that he captained the boat, and gets arrested; or, he gets deported after presenting himself as a migrant. 

In some cases, the boat captain is willing to migrate, so the smuggling networks offer him the opportunity to captain the boat without charging any money.

According to security sources, the trend of illegal migration to Cyprus has started to decline in recent weeks due to Cyprus' implementation of stricter measures. 

The Information Branch intercepted a boat being transported to the shore to smuggle a group of Syrians in the Arida area, while the Lebanese Navy intercepted another one. 

Security sources indicate that with the strict measures of Cyprus, any smuggling attempt at the moment is just a scam on the migrants, as smugglers know in advance that the attempts are doomed to fail, and the operation will only result in smugglers getting half of the monetary amount in advance from the migrants.