Faces and Voices – In Italy

G: Age 16, at a shelter in Sicily

After I left Eritrea, I spent one week in the refugee camp at Hitsats (Ethiopia), then a year in Sudan waiting for money from my father.  I didn’t work there, because my father told me I probably wouldn’t be paid.  My father arranged for a good smuggler.  I spent six days in the Sahara, then two months in Tripoli.  When we set out on the Mediterranean there were 500 people in our wooden boat.  Many had to stay in the hold, which is dangerous — but I was lucky, and got to stay on the upper deck. The engine died after one or two hours, at night.  The Italian navy picked us up at dawn.