Les Naufragés de Malte-3

Nadir, from Mogadiscio, 19 years old.
Born in Mogadiscio in 1989.

Some people, they attacked my family, they tried to kill my father. My father is from Caalgayo minority tribe and my mother from the main tribe, Hawiya. So the tribe of my mother, they refused the marriage. But the government, they helped my father. So when the government was destroyed in 1991, the tribe of my mother, they attacked my family. Then we ran in the south of Somalia, near Kenya. In 1999, we
where back in Mogadiscio, but my father refused to come back. He was afraid of my mother’s tribe.

When we where back in Mogadiscio, the tribe of my mother came back to us and say they would kill everyone, but my mother tried to defend us. One day, they killed my mother and injured my brother with fire, he was born in 1991. When my mother was killed, I was in the neighborhood, not at home, but when I came back I saw her dead and my brother injured.

We went to another region with the brother of my mother; my uncle. So I went in 2005 in Ethiopia with my uncle. We stayed two months in Ethiopia before going to Sudan, we crossed the border by walk. In
Sudan we traveled in the big desert to Libya. It took us four weeks in the desert. We had no water and no food… We started to die. Some people died.

Then we arrived at the border of Libya and started to run, the Libyan police purchased us with vehicles and opened fire, they killed four people. They captured me and put me in prison. They captured me in Kofra and sent me in the prison of BANGHAZI. In the prison we where beaten every night, some people, they put some water and after electricity. One man died. Sometimes I wake up at night when I dream of this. I spent five months in prison and five months free in Libya. I
worked, washed the cars, and for small money.

In June 2006, I traveled on the sea, from the region of Tripoli (Setenton). The first day was good, but after two days, no more petrol, no more water. There was a pregnant woman, she had her baby on the boat, we had no more water… but the baby survived. After four days, we saw fishermen and they called Malta, then we where safe.

When I arrived I was only seventeen, so I was only two months in detention. Other people, they stay one year… In Malta they say it is detention, but it is prison. After I stayed in Hal-Far, but their is too many problems their in the tents. That is why I moved here in Marsa. In this country there is too much problems, some people, they say «you are black, you have to go out… We don’t want you here… » Here, we have no education, no work, nothing!

Then I went to another countries; Sweden, Nederland… to live another life, but I was not successful. The police caught me after five months in Sweden and after six months in Nederland. I told them that there
were too many problems in Malta, that I was young and I wanted a better life. They answered that if I die, they don’t care.