São Paulo – On October 11, 32 refugees were rescued by the Brazilian Navy along the coast of Lebanon. The boat carrying the refugees from Syria had been adrift for three days after running out of fuel, the United Nations Information Center in Brazil (UNIC-Rio) reported.
The Syrians were trying to get to Cyprus – an island south of Turkey and west of Syria and Lebanon. UNIC-Rio said there was no food or water left on the boat, which had children and women on board. The Brazilian Navy ship is part of the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force in Lebanon.
The refugee boat was about 75 km off Lebanon’s capital Beirut, on the Mediterranean Sea. Brazilian frigate Liberal was deployed by the Task Force to the rescue. It supplied food, water and medical attention to the Syrians before the Lebanese Navy arrived.
Task Force
Brazil’s Navy has been leading the Maritime Task Force of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) since 2011. The Force also comprises German, Greek, Indonesian, Bangladeshi and Turkish ships.
According to UNIC-Rio, this is not the first time the Brazilian Navy comes to the rescue of immigrants lost at sea. In September 2015, corvette Barroso took in 220 immigrants on the Mediterranean Sea while en route to a Task Force mission.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
