Alif

My name is Alif*.  I am 17 years old, and I am from Bangladesh. 
  
In Bangladesh, my uncle, the brother of my father, tried to kill me. He attacked me several times with a machete. He said I was not religious enough and he wanted to take the land I was meant to inherit from my father. Then my father advised me to leave because my life was in danger. I started looking for possibilities. On Facebook, I found an advert offering jobs in Libya. An agency arranged the journey. I paid a fee, which included the flight. 

When I arrived in Libya, I found a job at a restaurant. I was paid 300 dollars for the first month. Five days after receiving the money, a group of men entered my room and kidnapped me. They were dressed up as police officers, and they handed me over to a Libyan criminal group. 
They locked me in a house and beat me. They forced me to witness the sexual abuse of others. They also forced some of us to have sex with each other while they watched. If I refused, they beat me and put a gun to my head. Some of the girls were very young. I think they were from the Philippines. 

Then they demanded $1,000 from me. They left me without food or water for three days. They forced me to call my parents. My family is poor. They had to sell some of their possessions but they could only send $500.
I knew my family was frightened, and I knew they had nothing. I felt terrible that they had to find money to save me.

They beat us. If you asked a question, you were beaten. The conditions were horrible. I just want to forget that time. 
Three people who had travelled with me were violently killed in Libya. They were shot or stabbed by criminal groups. 

One day, they put us in a van and took us to the beach. When we arrived, another van approached and people inside began shooting at us. We all got out as quickly as we could. 

The ground was covered with broken glass, and I had lost one of my shoes. I wrapped my jacket around my bare foot to protect it. I think that jacket saved my life. They then forced us onto a boat. When I asked where we were going, I was hit on the head and told to be quiet. They said we were Heading towards Lampedusa or Sicily. 

And then we found you. I was afraid in Bangladesh and then I was afraid again in Libya.  

I survived but inside I still do not feel free.
All I want is to be somewhere  where nobody beats me, locks me in, or makes me afraid. 

*Name changed to protect his identity.

Note: On board Ocean Viking, Alif and others who had experienced sexual violence, received care from our medical and mental health team. Alif was given a medical certificate documenting the violence he had experienced, and he was referred to medical and mental health services on land.