This is the testimony of Omar*, one of the seven survivors of the shipwreck of 2nd September 2024.
My name is Omar and I was born in Syria in 2004. I applied for asylum in Germany and at this moment I am housed in a shelter.
In 2012, due to the conflict in Syria, I was forced to leave my country and seek refuge in Lebanon. The unofficial Syrian secret service, known as Shabiha, was persecuting me and my family members.
In Lebanon, we faced racial discrimination, with regulations that restricted our freedom of movement and employment opportunities. I also suffered physical attacks; therefore, in August I made the decision to leave again.
I did not have the option of going back, as I would have been forced to serve in the military and would have had to fight with the Syrian army alongside Hezbollah. I did not wish to be involved in violence or wield weapons. Therefore, I made the decision to flee to Libya.
On September 1, 2024, around 3 p.m., I boarded a small boat from a Libyan coastal location. I was wearing a light-colored top and dark pants. There were twenty-eight of us on board; twenty-six were from my home country while two were from another country.
Around midnight between September 1 and 2, the engine died. A young man contacted those who had organized the departure in Libya and instructed us how to remove a cable from the engine. We did so and were able to restart the engine.
Navigation continued and around 4:30/5:00 p.m. on September 2, we observed an airplane flying over our boat. The young man in charge decided to stop, fearing that he would incur penalties for driving the craft. We then encouraged the young man to resume his journey, and he eventually agreed, resuming his course to Lampedusa. In the meantime, we contacted a person on land who could alert rescue to come to our aid.
About 30 minutes after we resumed sailing, a wave hit us and the boat capsized. Six of the people on board, including the young man at the helm, disappeared in the waves. We managed to right the boat and placed the three children in the middle to protect them. We tried to get back on the boat and continue the journey, but the waves were too high and we could not. For two and a half days we were in this situation: the waves were coming in, capsizing the boat and catching someone among us.
I fainted several times and lost my sanity. On September 4, we finally noticed a helicopter that stayed above us for about twenty minutes. Subsequently, the boat came and rescued us. Upon arrival in Lampedusa, I was taken to the hotspot. In a room across from the Red Cross, I had an interview with the Italian police and an interpreter, during which I described in great detail the events that had occurred; afterward, I was asked to sign a document.
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
