Refugees: Hakim Bello.. Here’s my story of fleeing and surviving ..!

03:12 PM Apr, 22 2015
Sudanese Online
Hadeer Alzain-
My Library at SudaneseOnline



The Guardian
Monday 20 April 2015

I was a Lampedusa refugee. Here’s my story of fleeing Libya – and surviving:
Hakim Bello



A boat with immigrants on board arrives at Lampedusa, southern Italy.
‘I said my last prayer – I felt like I was dead already.’ Photograph: Ettore Ferrari/EPA


The boy next to me fell to the floor and for a moment I didn’t know if he had fainted or was dead – then I saw that he was covering his

eyes so he didn’t have to see the waves any more. A pregnant woman vomited and started screaming.

Below deck, people were shouting that they couldn’t breathe, so the men in charge of the boat went down

and started beating them. By the time we saw a rescue helicopter, two days after our boat had left Libya

with 250 passengers on board, some people were already dead – flung into the sea by the waves, or suffocated

downstairs in the dark. It’s very difficult for me to think about this, nearly four years after I paid a smuggler to get

me out of Libya, but it’s important for people to understand what is happening to us and why.

I’m one of several hundred thousand people who, since the Arab uprisings of 2011, have arrived in Europe across the Mediterranean.

It is now the deadliest border in the world. We all have different reasons for doing it: some people think they’ll find a better life in

Europe, others just want to get away from a war zone. But everyone feels they have no other option.


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