Usman Siddique, 27, from the city of Gujrat in the Punjab province of Pakistan, was on board the fishing trawler carrying hundreds of people from Libya to Italy that sank off the coast of Greece in June. As many as 500 people are missing. A recent investigation suggested that Greek coastguard attempts to tow the fishing trawler may have caused the vessel to sink. Siddique tells his story:
We were rescued around five or six hours after the shipwreck. I was in such a bad condition. I was totally naked. To save themselves, someone held my pants while I was trying to escape the sinking ship. I had to remove them to save myself.
A friend was sitting next to me, but I think he could not find the way out of the ship as it was sinking. I knew the way out, and my mind was working in the crisis, so I was lucky.
I saw one floating lifejacket. I tried to pull it and saw a dead baby in it. At that moment, I got really scared and started mentally preparing myself that I would be next to die. I thought I would die as the coastguard was looking at us but not rescuing us.
Every time I tried to swim towards the coastguard ship, I was pushed farther away from it due to heavy waves. I struggled on a piece of wood, which I used to balance my body.
It was around dawn when two speedboats rescued me. A few hours later, I was taken to a big white ship, which took about eight hours to reach Greece. I was in the hospital for two days, and the UN’s International Organization for Migration helped me return to Pakistan.
It’s a miracle that I am alive. I was totally hopeless. We did not have food for six days on the journey. I had bought some edible things before the journey, but they said you can’t bring a single piece of paper as it would add to the weight of the ship. Everyone was just wearing their clothes.
We were not offered anything despite them charging us separately $100 (£76) for food and promising us a lifejacket. People living in the upper deck received some food and water, but I was living in the second portion of the boat and we were given nothing.
I am a police constable in Pakistan. While living in a cramped house with a shared family and having a wife and child, life has been tough. It has been hard to survive. I have seen every other person from Gujrat, my hometown, going to Europe, getting settled and supporting their parents and children to have a better and prosperous life. It pushed me to make this journey.
I wanted my son to have a good education and support my parents. Our house is so small and we don’t have room for visitors and guests to sit, let alone spend a night. I thought: if I make it to Italy, I can change the living standards of my family. I can educate my child to become an officer. Here in Pakistan, education is a privilege.
My father still works, despite having joint pains and other issues. I wanted him to rest. He did a lot for us and I believed it was my responsibility to do something.
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I don’t think this tragedy will dissuade people from taking this journey. Some people in Libya told me the agents suspended their operations after the Greek shipwreck, but that they will restart in a week or so.
At least 20,000 Pakistanis, many with their families, are in Libya waiting to start their journey via ship for Italy. Six of my friends have already reached Europe. During my two-month stay in Libya, 11 ships departed and reached Italy.
It is also hard to come back from Libya. If one asks the agent to send him back, he would ask for more money. If someone had borrowed 2.4m Pakistani rupees (£6,500) for this journey, how can he afford to borrow more money to head back?
We know that everyone who is going to Libya with a proper visa is destined for Europe through illegal means, so the government should stop people travelling there. There is nothing in Libya, so why would anyone go to Libya except to take this journey to Europe?
I did not take political asylum to stay in Greece like other Pakistanis. The day I returned home, people who had lent me funds came for their money. I am really worried about how to pay them back. I sold two buffaloes, one bike and my wife’s jewellery as well as borrowing more than 1m Pakistani rupees from friends and relatives for this journey.
If I was in Libya now, and told to pay more to go back home, I would never do that. I would prefer to go ahead.
Usman Siddique was speaking to Shah Meer Baloch
