The death toll of the capsized Lebanese migrant boat near the coastal Syrian city of Tartous on 22 September continues to climb, with government reports from Lebanon and Syria indicating that over 70 people have drowned.

The most recent reports indicate that at least 77 people have died due to the accident, and Damascus confirmed that there are 20 survivors currently being treated at Basel hospital in Tartous.

The Syrian transport ministry cited survivors, who said the migrant boat left Lebanon’s northern Minyeh region containing 120 to 150 people, including Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese nationals.

The Syrian director general of ports Samer Qubrusli said that search operations are still ongoing, yet the “rough seas and strong winds” have created complications.

Al Jazeera journalist Zeina Khodr paid a visit to one of the homes of a family who had relatives on the boat, as people gathered to pay their respects.

“There’s a lot of grief here, people are in shock,” said Khodr. “They don’t understand why they don’t have much more information,” she added.

One of the relatives of the deceased explained to Khodr that her father was seeking to go to Europe due to the current financial crisis plaguing Lebanon, despite the risks involved.

In recent months, thousands of people – mostly Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians – have left Lebanon on rafts in an attempt to seek better opportunities in European countries.

In a similar incident on 23 April, six people died after a boat carrying 60 migrants sank off the coast of Tripoli in Lebanon.

Survivors of the migrant boat sinking incident in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli placed the blame for the tragedy on the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), accusing its troops of deliberately hitting the overcrowded boat to stop it from reaching Cyprus.

According to survivors, an army vessel attempted to block the path of the migrant boat several times, circling them before ramming into the boat twice and causing it to split in two.

Both incidents come as Lebanon has been battered by current global affairs, such as the war in Ukraine affecting energy and grain prices and the rampant corruption of the country’s financial elites.

The World Bank has described the crisis in Lebanon as “deliberate” and blamed the elites for operating a “Ponzi scheme.”

According to a report published by the United Nations in September 2021, three-quarters of the Lebanese population live below the poverty line, leading to migration out of the country.