Lebanon deports 37 Bangladeshis

BEIRUT, Jan 11: Thirty-seven Bangladeshis stranded in a south Lebanon border town since October were sent home today, reports AP.

Officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross identified all those deported as Bangladeshi men. The men were abandoned at sea late last year by smugglers who promised to take them to Europe.

On Tuesday, the men, looking worried and nervous, were driven for several hours from the town of Naqoura to the Beirut airport.

Photographers were barred from taking pictures of the deportees as they climbed out of the two ICRC buses, clutching small luggage bags and plastic bags containing sandwiches, juice and water bottles.

One deportee who refused to be identified, yelled: "We are flying back to Bangladesh."

Thirty-six other illegal immigrants from Iran, Iraq, India, Sri Lanka, and Egypt remain in Lebanon.

"We are continuing our contacts with other governments and hopefully the others will be returned to their countries soon," said Mohsen Jamal, an ICRC spokesman.

He said the ICRC and the International Organisation for Migration are paying the cost of the deportations.

In all, 73 illegal immigrants, who were on a ship supposedly heading toward a European country, were abandoned by their crew. The Israeli navy, which patrols off the south Lebanon coast to guard against guerilla infiltration, towed the ship ashore and rescued its passengers on October 30.

During their stay in Naqoura, the ICRC provided the illegal immigrants with food, blankets and medical assistance, according to Jamal.

Lebanese authorities in recent months have seized several ships carrying illegal immigrants - most of them poor labourers - bound for Europe. The immigrants had paid smugglers to get them across the Mediterranean, but in some cases were abandoned at sea.