Dying for a better life: On board Lebanon’s ‘death caravans’ to Europe

Dying for a better life: On board Lebanon’s ‘death caravans’ to Europe

It was on the third day lost at sea, when they started trying to filter seawater using baby's nappies that Mohamed, 23, volunteered to swim to land and find help.Two children, a diabetic man and a woman had already died in the deteriorating conditions. With no food or water, time was running out for the remaining 40 or so panicked passengers, who had all paid over $1000 (£740) each to take the rickety boat from Lebanon to Cyprus in search of a better life.The smuggler, who took their bags and provisions promising to follow with a bigger boat, had disappeared. And so floating aimlessly on the Mediterranean with no way of navigating to safety, Mohamed, a former shop assistant, and four other young men agreed to make for shore in a last bid to be rescued.  “He had given the water and dates he had with him to the children,” said Samir, Mohamed's older brother, from Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli where the boats leave from. “No one knows what happened after that.”“My brother's body washed up in Saida, in southern Lebanon, the other body of his friend was found in Akkar in the water.  “The other young men were