A Syrian 17-year-old who was recently rescued from the Mediterranean when a wooden boat with 76 people on board went adrift says he had tried to cross from Libya seven times, but he was “always taken back” and “imprisoned” ClaireGilbodyD reports
saved the 76 people when their boat was in distress in the Mediterranean on 11 August.The teen said his parents wanted him to return to Syria as they considered Libya to be too unsafe.
“They [his parents] knew they were beating us, sometimes with sticks or wires, so they could ask our families for more money,” he said. “I was alone, I left Syria without my family. It was very hard to resist the temptation to go back, I missed my home so much, but I knew there was no future for me in Syria.
“Now my family doesn’t even know I’m alive, they took my phone in Libya and I couldn’t contact my mother to tell her that this time, the seventh time I was trying to cross the Mediterranean, I made it.”disembarked in Naples, Italy, on Monday with the migrants it had rescued. Those on the boat included seven women, 24 children – 12 of them unaccompanied, and a seven-month-old baby.
Most hailed from Egypt and Syria, but also Ethiopia and Eritrea, which, as the NGO pointed out, are all affected by conflict, political and economic instability, and food insecurity.‘s Head of Mission, said of the rescue, which was coordinated by the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre , and conducted in the Maltese Search and Rescue Zone.
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