This is the testimony of Aayan*, one of the seven survivors of the shipwreck of 2nd September 2024.
My name is Aayan, I was born in Syria, and right now I am in a reception center in Germany, where I have applied for asylum.
I have lived my entire life in my hometown, except for a period during which my family and I were displaced. I am a parent of several children and – before I became ill – I worked as a driver.
In 2016 the authorities imprisoned me a first time, for thirty days. By paying a considerable sum I managed to get out of jail. In 2017, however, I was imprisoned again on specious charges of financing and supporting illegal activities, even though I was innocent. Many were arrested along with me.
I was kept in jail for a long time despite being ill. The charges against me could have led to a severe sentence of up to 17 years in prison. Thanks to the support of my family, we managed to find a lawyer to assist me and I was released from prison in 2018. However, the authorities blocked my passport, preventing me from leaving the country. To be able to pay the amount needed to get it back I had to sell my house.
In 2020 I was told that one of my family members, who was doing military service, had escaped. I started looking for him but it quickly became clear to me that he had not left Syria. A year ago, upon payment of a certain amount, I found out that he was in a prison in a Syrian city. The person who gave me this information advised me to leave the country immediately because the authorities were suspicious of me as well.
At that point, I decided I would leave: I have chronic myeloid leukemia and was diagnosed with a possible serious kidney problem. My health condition was deteriorating and there was no medicine to treat me in Syria, so I accepted the risk of dying on the journey, knowing that if I could save myself and get to Europe I could save my family as well. They are still in Syria, here I have only one of my children – born in 1997 – who arrived in Germany two years ago.
So I reached Libya. On August 30 or 31 we were taken to a compound, a ten-minute drive from the sea, where we were held captive by several armed people. On September 1, 2024, around 1:30/ 2:00 p.m., our group was taken to a beach near Sabratha. In front of us was a small wooden boat about six meters long, equipped with a seventy-five horsepower engine. Despite our attempts to resist boarding, the men who led us to the beach forced us to board.
Twenty-eight people were on board the boat, including twenty-five adults and three minors. The boat was driven by two young men. One of the people was wearing black pants and a blue jacket with red and white stripes, as well as a blue towel used to cover his head. After about 26 hours of sailing, we saw an airplane flying overhead making circles. We checked our position and were 45 kilometers from Lampedusa. At that point the captain called for rescue but no one came. So we resumed sailing toward the island.
After about thirty to forty minutes a very high wave came and we all ended up in the water. Due to the capsizing of the boat six of us disappeared in the waves and never resurfaced. Among them were some elderly people and one of the boys who was driving the boat. We managed to right the boat but it was full of water. We put the children on board to protect them and started thinking about how we could continue. I tried to take off the engine cover to use it as a bucket to remove the water from inside the boat. I remember at one point I saw a ship in the distance, we shouted for help but it was really too far away and they didn’t hear us. Then night came. We tried to stay afloat with black inner tubes that each of us had, to use as life preservers. The waves were high and with each wave, we lost one of us. On the second day, we were without food or anything and we started hallucinating: we saw buildings in the middle of the sea, ships, and we were trying to reach them. The situation was really desperate and I remember that I also saw a building in the middle of the sea, tried to swim in that direction but then I realized it was not real and turned back.
The three children who were traveling with us died. The first one was 12 years old, he was alone and from Idlib in Syria. One of the waves swept him away. We managed to retrieve him and tried to revive him but there was nothing we could do. The second child saw something one night and jumped into the sea to reach it and we never saw him again. The third was four years old and was traveling with a parent. He was swept away by the waves. Twice we retrieved him but the third time he was with his parent and it was night, we lost them both.
During the crossing, some of us lost our clothes, others were wearing others’ clothes to protect themselves from the cold. Every time the boat capsized we tried to right it: we tied a long rope in the middle of the boat, some of us pulled and others went underneath pushing it. So we managed to right her three or four times.
In the end, there were seven of us left, me and six other people. On September fourth, a plane came, then a helicopter, and then we saw a rescue ship coming. We were rescued and taken to Lampedusa. The next day I was taken to Palermo by helicopter.
Read more about the shipwreck and the criminal charges we filed against Italian authorities with the public prosecutor’s office in Agrigento, including multiple counts of negligent manslaughter.
*to protect him, we use a fictitious name
