Meet Amir
Amir in Lampedusa, Italy. April 2017. ©Pamela Kerpius/Migrants of the Mediterranean
by
Pamela Kerpius
Recorded:
April 2017
Published:
2017
Meet Amir.
20 years old and from Sudan.
To reach Lampedusa he crossed three countries: Sudan, Egypt, and the most dangerous of all, Libya.
He traveled to Egypt and stayed in the country working as a shoe maker for one year and two months. He worked 12-hour days putting together leather sandals.
From Egypt he traveled to Libya, where he stayed for eight months. He arrived first in the city of Tazirbu to the east, then arrived in Sabha, which is directly west and slightly north of his arrival point.
He was in Sabha for three days and went mostly without food. He was given a biscuit at one point. He drank salty tap water. The traffickers there made him call his family for money, but there was none to send.
I don’t know how he got out of Sabha so quickly, given most migrants will spend weeks or months there suffering, being tortured, but this is all the information I have.
Amir said he then traveled to Zawilah (a city slightly south of Sabha) and remained there for 18 days.
From there he went to Tripoli, then to the coastal camp of Sabratha.
He crossed the Mediterranean Sea in a rubber dinghy with 124 people, which included women and about 3-4 babies. He arrived in Lampedusa on 20 March 2017.
Amir misses his family. He had five sisters, but one died. He would like his family to come to Europe to him, where he would like to learn better English and work. He is also a mechanic by trade.
Amir is an amazing human being.