Migrant Stories

Desperate but Alive – Surviving the Flight from Libya

The Jasmin Revolution has sparked the powders of rebellion
across the Middle East, and in Libya the movement has met with
stiff resistance. Caught in the crossfire, hundreds of thousands of
migrant workers have been fleeing since late February. Seeking
refuge mainly in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia, those migrants
wanting to go back home are being helped by IOM. Those who cannot
or do not want to are being driven to desperate measures to find a
new life elsewhere

Like so many others, Faith, a young woman from Nigeria's Benin
City and her husband were well established in the Libyan capital,
Tripoli, where both were working and making ends meet. Hoping that
the crisis would soon conclude, Faith and her husband carried on,
though the situation became increasingly dangerous.

Ultimately, it became too frightening and fearing for their
lives, they joined a group of about 900 people trying to get to
Italy by sea on a fateful Saturday morning in early June.

They each paid 800 Libyan dinars (approximately USD 300) for
spots on a boat that would take them from Janzour (near Tripoli) to
the Italian island of Lampedusa.

"The vessel is too large to come to the beach," they were told
and everyone was ferried out on small boats. By the time they
reached the craft, it was clear that this was no more than a large
fishing boat but it was too late to go back!

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<br "Choucha camp on the Libyan-Tunisian border sees the bulk of the arrival of migrants from Libya © IOM 2011"
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Choucha camp on the Libyan-Tunisian border sees the bulk of
the arrival of migrants from Libya © IOM 2011

The journey was to take approximately 28 hours and passengers
had been told to bring one bottle of water and minimal rations.

By the next morning, the vessel was within sight of the Tunisian
island of Djerba, well on its way to Italy it seemed. Heading north
from there, with no compass on board, the ship became lost at sea.
For the next two days, it sailed aimlessly. By midday Tuesday, the
boat treaded shallow waters and ran aground. It was another 24
hours before Tunisian authorities were to carry out an ill-fated
rescue operation which saw the loss of so many lives.

Women and children were being rescued first. Faith was already
aboard the Tunisian ship by the time the fishing boat tipped onto
one side. The ensuing confusion defies all explanation.

In Choucha camp on the Libyan-Tunisian border which has seen the
bulk of the arrival of migrants from Libya, Faith now sits in a
tent she shares with Emmanuel, 15, and four-year-old Jacob. Their
mother moved to Libya with her children nearly three years ago to
work as a hairdresser. She may have perished during the rescue
mission but no one knows for sure.

All three are haggard and desperate, hoping against hope that
the missing loved ones may be among the survivors who were taken to
a hospital in Sfax.

"I do not know if my husband is alive and if he is at the
hospital," says Faith. "We cannot go there. I do not know anything.
All I have is Almighty God."

Faith and her husband went to Libya in search of a better life.
He was a construction worker; Faith cleaned houses.

"Many from the shipwreck have already gone back to Libya, to try
to get on a boat again," recounts Faith. "Me, I do not have the
heart. We were planning to return home at the end of the year and
now I have nothing and no way to start. The clothes I wear are not
mine. I have lost all of my savings. Everything is gone, everything
is gone."