A picture of Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati is placed on a residential building in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon September 23, 2022. The tragedy has underscored soaring poverty in northern Lebanon, and Tripoli in particular, that is driving ever more people to take desperate measures three years into the country's devastating financial collapse. Tripoli, Lebanon's second city with a population of roughly half a million, was already Lebanon's poorest before the country plummeted into financial crisis, the result of decades of corruption and bad governance overseen by ruling elites. The economic crisis has led poverty to sky-rocket, with 80% of the population of some 6.5 million poor, according to the United Nations. Several other boats attempted the voyage from Lebanon last week: Cyprus rescued 477 people from two vessels that left Lebanon.

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