Mohammed Adam Oga is being treated at Malta’s Mater Dei hospital for dehydration
VALETTA, Aug 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) —“There were 15 of us on the boat and I am the only one alive,” says Mohammed Adam Oga from his hospital bed in Malta.
The migrants had each paid a smuggler $700 to make the journey from Libya to Europe in the scorching heat of the Central Mediterranean.
Then their fuel ran out. Then their food. Then their water. He is the sole survivor, he says, of the passengers, including a pregnant woman, who attempted the arduous journey in one of the deadliest stretches of water in the world.
“We were at sea for 11 days. We started drinking sea water. After five days, two people died. Then every day, two more died.”
He was picked up in Maltese waters on Monday after the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, spotted a dinghy adrift at sea.
Footage of the rescue by Malta’s armed forces showed him slumped over a man’s body, before he was airlifted to hospital.
“God sent the Maltese to save me,” he told Times of Malta, while being attached to a drip and too weak to walk.
The 38-year-old, who describes himself as an exiled Ethiopian politician from former rebel group the Oromo Liberation Front, decided to make the journey after he was contacted by friends from Germany.
Mohammed is one of more than 40,000 people who have survived crossing the treacherous Mediterranean to Europe’s coasts this year, including 1,000 to Malta.
According to the UN, 839 have died, making the Mediterranean the most dangerous sea route for refugees and migrants in the world.
While the sea crossings continue, there is deadlock among EU countries about what to do.
Italy’s anti-immigration interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has repeatedly attempted to block charity ships from docking, clashing with the Italian prime minister over 147 migrants who arrived off Lampedusa on Thursday on the humanitarian ship Open Arms.
A second boat, Ocean Viking, has picked up 356 migrants people in four rescue operations close to Libya.
Italy’s much smaller neighbour, Malta, is watching events in Italy closely. Its armed forces have rescued migrants at sea, but Malta is disinclined to help charity ships, as it fears they are encouraging Libya’s smuggling gangs. — NNN-AGENCIES
