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Jérémie Lusseau / SOS MEDITERRANEE

Stories of survivors

SOS MEDITERRANEE has rescued more than 42,700 people since 2016. 

From an eight-year-old who walked alone from Mali to a Lebanese family with three young children, these are the stories of those rescued. Their harrowing and heartbreaking tales shed a light on the dire humanitarian situation in the Mediterranean.  

Video
Portrait-Aboulai

Testimony

Aboulai

Aboulai* is 29 years old, originally from Benin, and has a degree in chemistry, biology and geology. On 27 April, the crews of the Ocean Viking rescued his inflatable boat in international waters,...
Portrait-Mourad

Testimony

Mourad

Mourad, a 48-year-old Libyan man, married with three children. He was rescued together with his family by the Ocean Viking on 18 March 2021. “There has been no stable government in Libya for 10...
Portrait-Mohammed

Testimony

Mohammed

Mohammed is 22 years old. He fled Libya with his brother and two friends on June 23th, 2020. He was rescued by the Ocean Viking after spending two nights at sea on an overcrowded wooden...
Portrait-R.

Testimony

Rasel

Rasel*, a 34 year-old man from Bangladesh, fled Libya on an overcrowded wooden boat with 66 other people. After a dire journey at sea, he was rescued by the Ocean Viking in the afternoon of...
Cover-photo-hands

Testimony

Mido

Throughout the 11 days the Ocean Viking spent waiting for a safe port to disembark 180 survivors in the beginning of July, psychological distress became unbearable for some of the survivors. Two...
Portrait-Yussif

Testimony

Yussif

“My name is Yussif. I am from Somalia, I’m 17 years old. I don’t know how I arrived in Libya. I never planned to go there. I did not understand what happened. I don’t even know exactly how long I...