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Why these Australians flew 14,000km to find a sunken migrant boat and its 40 dead
When 40 people lost their lives on a crowded people smuggling boat trying to flee Lebanon in April, three Australians began a mission to find the wreckage and honour the dead, with it now uncovering distressing results.
Published 31 August 2022 8:16am
By Tessa Fox
Source: SBS News
Image: Nazih Sabih, Tom Zreika and Ahmed El Ayoubi at Lebanon's Tripoli Port. (Supplied / Tessa Fox)
Every morning at 4am, three Australian men have been departing Tripoli Port in Lebanon’s north in an attempt to retrieve the bodies of 40 people who died when a boat carrying 85 migrants capsized in April.
“There was one image that haunts us, which appears to be a child in a parka … it must have been a cold night,” one of them says.
Tom Zreika and Nazih Sabih call Sydney home, but being of Lebanese descent and hearing those aboard the boat had died trying to flee Lebanon’s economic crisis, was painful.
They were understood to be Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians trying to reach Italy.
“These ‘boat people’ issues we have in Australia, make us really uncomfortable because we’re one of them, we’re the product of that,” Mr Zreika says.
His parents fled Lebanon by boat with him when he was just two years old.
The third man in the group, Ahmed El Ayoubi, previously lived in Sydney before moving to Lebanon.
All three knew they had to do something to help.
The mission underway off Lebanon's Tripoli Port. Source: Supplied / AusRelief
Five kilometres offshore, safety checks are made and a crane lowers the Pisces into the blue.
The mission is being run by the men’s charity, AusRelief, which says it provides relief to people in Australia and globally. It has so far cost more than $650,000.
The dives, which took place last week, have taken three months to get underway. The Poland-registered submarine’s journey to Lebanon was hampered by EU sanctions and its specialist pilot had to be flown in from the US.
Ten bodies were found by the submarine team last week. Each day is a heavy one for those watching on.
An image of the boat brought back by the mission. Source: Supplied / Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF)
“She’s trying to jump out the window, she’s broken off one of the handles from inside the cabin, she’s literally broken it off and punched it through the window and she was halfway out,” Mr Zreika says, trailing off as he pictures it in his mind.
“It really hit home and broke me; all I could see is my mother holding onto me.”
It really hit home ... all I could see is my mother holding onto me.Tom Zreika, AusRelief
The bodies that haven’t yet been located - the majority being women and children - are believed to be stuck in the cabin of the boat.
For those that have been found, an attempt to recover them in order to allow the families to hold a proper burial had to be paused. The decomposition of the bodies meant they disintegrated when trying to be retrieved, and under the pressure of the water the boat is essentially stuck in quicksand.
The decision was made to no longer disturb them; their resting place is now suspended in time.
The submarine faced delays getting to Lebanon. Source: Supplied / AusRelief
Standing at the edge of the barge over the wreckage 459 metres below, the multi-faith team recited their own personal prayers followed by a minute of silence. The submarine and diving crews, as well as navy personnel, then dropped one white carnation into the sea for each of those who died.
Mr Zreika says they wanted the families of the dead to take part in the ceremony but the Lebanese government advised against it. Due to security concerns he and his colleague also cut their trip short and flew back to Australia.
Since the incident on 23 April, the families of those who died, and some who survived, have claimed the Lebanese navy rammed the boat, causing it to sink.
The images of the wreckage from the AusRelief mission show no sign of damage to the boat. But families and survivors, after being informed and shown the photos, reject the authenticity of what is presented to them.
A ceremony was held to honour those who died. Source: Supplied / AusRelief
A source in the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) told SBS News that the incident occurred because there were 85 people on a 10-metre fibreglass boat licensed to carry only six people.
“They said we rammed the middle of their boat, but they tried to ram our boat with the bow of their boat because they know we will pull back,” they claimed, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the ongoing court investigation.
“We were all looking for the truth … at a certain point we got suspicious of ourselves, but we know what happened, all our guys were doing the same things and we do it over and over, and thank goodness the truth has emerged.”
The LAF source claims families have been told by people smugglers to place the blame on the navy in order to be paid compensation later by the state.
“[The people smugglers] have to blame the navy to not go to prison [for taking] all those innocent people, kids, babies, and women and putting them all on such a dangerous boat,” they said.
AusRelief’s submarine mission has now been paused. But Mr Zreika and his team hope to continue to honour those who died, support their families, and bring greater respect to those who flee their homelands in dangerous circumstances globally.
“No one expected a foreign crew would send a sub down,” he says.
Mr El Ayoubi adds: “Hand in hand, anything can be achieved, and there is someone out there who cares.”
Tessa Fox is a freelance journalist based in Beirut.
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