A survivor of the migrant boat
shipwreck off Libya on March 12 that left 30 people dead said
Monday all he wanted was to embrace his family.
"In my country I worked as a carpenter for a living, but I
always dreamed of reaching Italy. Now I only hope to be able to
hug my family again," said Siful, aged 33, from Bangladesh.
He is one of 17 people to have been rescued by the merchant ship
'Froland' and disembarked in the Sicilian port city of Pozzallo.
"Let my family know that I am alive, that I managed to save
myself. I made it, while so many of my fellow travelers drowned
before my eyes," he continued.
Siful is receiving medical treatment for a fractured leg after
he injured himself trying to climb onto the capsized vessel.
"There were 47 of us, all men, on an old, 8-metre boat that
couldn't hold everyone," he said.
A few hours after leaving Libya he said the sailing conditions
deteriorated.
"The sea was getting rougher and rougher. Some people wanted to
turn back. We were crammed together, it was very cold and the
waves made me feel sick. The cold was unbearable," Siful
continued.
Then the boat capsized.
"Everyone was shouting and calling for help, I clung to the
wreckage with the force of desperation, but many of us didn't
know how to swim and I saw them disappear beneath the waves. We
were trying to encourage each other, someone will come to save
us, we raised the alarm by phone. Then the ship came," Siful
said.
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