Nirvan

After spending two days adrift in a black fibreglass boat off the coast of Libya, 73 people—including *Nirvan from Nepal—were rescued by the Ocean Viking. They had left Zwara, Libya, in search of safety after months of danger and exploitation. For *Nirvan, this rescue marked the end of a staggering 14-month journey across six countries, and the first moment he felt his life was no longer in danger.

In his own words, this is Nirvan’s story.

Nepal is full of beautiful and fun places, but the society and politics there are very bad. There is murder, violence, looting and protests going on in Nepal¹, That is why there is no safety of life in Nepal.

No one knows what will happen in any part of Nepal, but that is also due to politics. You never know when there will be murder or robbery.²

1. There have been several protests in Nepal in the last 20 years, notably in the last few, against the prime minister and against coruption and nepotism.
2. Extreme poverty allevitation NGO The BorgenProject and the World Bank report, “Nepal continues to battle a deep-rooted poverty crisis, with more than 25% of its population living below the national poverty line. In the 2024 Human Development Index (HDI), the country ranked 146th out of 193, placing it among the lowest in South Asia.”

I travelled from Nepal, to India, India to Oman, from Oman to Dubai, from Dubai to Saudi Arabia. I spent time in all these places working and saving enough money to make this journey. From Saudi Arabia I came to Egypt, and then Libya. This took me 14 months.

I spent 16 days in Libya, but that moment was very difficult. It was very difficult not understanding the language there, The people were very scary and would beat and rob people. I only had 120 dollars at that time.

They robbed me of my mobile phone. After that, I was tortured and beaten a lot. I was only allowed to eat once in 24 hours for about 16 days, but I feel like I can forget about that pain.It was very difficult for me, I swear, I thought I might not survive

There is safety in Italy, safety of life.

First of all, thank you very much for listening to me. I have a dream that I can go to Italy and spend my life happily. And tomorrow, I will go and work so that my father, mother and brother’s dream will come true. Someday, I hope they’ll say, “[Nepal] is nothing like that now.” My first dream is to make my parents happy.

Nirvan is the first Nepali we’ve rescued aboard Ocean Viking, and was the only Nepali in a rescue of predominantly people of Bengali descent.

“I’m a lonely Nepali… my heart felt lonely… because the Bengalis here don’t understand me and I don’t understand them. I feel lonely because I don’t know who to talk to. but I feel very proud when you ask me some things. I am very happy now. Something else that makes me happy is acting. I acted in a movie. It’s a small role. It’s a movie I acted in for fun.

Now I am very happy… to be talking to you. I am very grateful today for giving me your time. I feel very proud — now I have a sister. I have a friend. I can talk to everyone. I am very happy. Talking to you has refreshed my mind a lot.