Fathia came to Sweden in 2005 with an infant daughter. After losing half of her family to the chaotic violence of Somalia, she fled the country, leaving two children behind. On the journey through Ethiopia, Sudan and Libya, she witnessed appalling conditions, terror and abuse. She crossed the Mediterranean, spending time in Italy, before finally reaching Sweden. Some years later, she received an unexpected call from one of her sons who was being held for ransom by traffickers in Sudan.
“I asked him why he was in Sudan. He said, Mum, I’m being held hostage by the traffickers! When I heard that I almost died. I knew what that meant and that I was powerless. I was frozen. I could not think, and I started shaking. I asked where his brother was and if they were together, but he said he was alone. As a mother that was even worse for me to hear.”
The kidnappers demanded USD 700 in ransom and Fathia managed to pay that from the social benefit allowance she receives. But the traffickers did not release her son; instead they sold him to Libyan traffickers who demanded even more money. The ransom was now USD 5,500. They threatened to kill him if she did not send the money. But lacking relatives or close friends in Europe, she couldn’t imagine how to raise the sum.
“It made me feel like I was in a grave and had nowhere to run. They would call me and make me listen to my son crying. In the background Idriss was screaming, send them the money, send them the money! I said, don’t kill my son! I will pay! I didn’t know what I was saying. My son was being beaten and I was being forced to hear it.”
She sold her belongings and her jewellery and borrowed from acquaintances. Bit by bit she collected the ransom, though it took two weeks, not the three days demanded by the kidnappers. Next, she was told of a cholera outbreak in the smugglers’ compound which infected her son. She paid more to get him medication. Though he recovered from cholera, he was shot and badly wounded in a riot at the camp.
Fathia’s son was carried onto a smuggler’s boat for Italy, unable to walk and in serious condition. When rescued by a ship from a charity organisation, he was taken by helicopter to hospital in Malta. Waiting for updates of his condition, Fathia learned still more bad news. Her second son had left Somalia and was on his way to Europe. She implored him to stop and return, but it was too late to go back.
“I told him not to travel. I said he should stay where he is. There is nothing here worth the fire, the turmoil, the agony migrants are going through. They are in danger of death in the ocean or in the desert.”