Rashid

Rashid* is 21 years old, from Sudan. He was on a small rubber boat that departed Tripoli, Libya, with 35 other people, in the hope to reach Lampedusa. They spent two days at sea, most of it adrift among high waves. 

By the second night at sea I started to become afraid. We had lost the engine and didn’t have any idea where we were. 

When we first saw the light of your ship, we became nervous because there was no way of knowing if you were there to help us or to force us back to Libya. In a way I had accepted that we might not survive this journey, and I thought I would rather die at sea than be taken back to what we had escaped.  
But when it came to the decision of turning on the light of my mobile phone, even with the risk of you being the Libyans Coast Guards, I guess I will just clinged on to any chance of survival. So, together with the people onboard, we decided that we should try to send you a light signal. 

It’s hard to explain the relief on our small boat when we realised you are a European NGO and that we would finally be safe.  

If the Libyans treated us well, maybe we wouldn’t have to risk our lives at sea.
But they treat us like animals.
Sometimes even worse than that.