Tanvir

I am from Dhaka, Bangladesh. I was a university student, and my dream was to go to Europe to seek for higher education.
I could not find any good way to leave Bangladesh. One day, I met an man who arranges for people from Bangladesh to go to Libya. He convinced me there were many job opportunities there. He said it would cost $5,000 to fly me there. As it represents a lot of money, my family lent me half of the money and I arranged to take loans from my friends for the other half.  

I went through Dubai, then to Egypt. After reaching Egypt, and many administrative issues, I reached Benghazi. The agent arranged me for a home. A Libyan person hired me in his shop.

Libya is a very difficult place for everyone. You cannot go outside safely.

If you go alone outside, you may get caught by the mafias. They are everywhere. Even if you have the legal papers to live in Libya, it won’t help. If the police caught you , they sell you to the mafias.

I was working without receiving any salary, but I could not do anything about it. I was helpless and I could not send money to my family either. I worked in Libya for two years, but I never got my salary. My passport was taken by some Libyan people, making everything even more difficult.

I was advised by friends to leave this country where I was trapped. I knew that so many people passed away trying to cross the sea towards Europe, so I first refused to leave. 

Then eventually I had no other option and I had to risk my life.  

I convinced my employer who had never paid me, to at least arrange my crossing. He took me to the desert where I was put in a house with 75 other people waiting to cross. One day they put us all on a tiny boat.  

Everywhere was darkness. Everywhere was sea. Only us, no one else. 

We ran out of drinkable water and dates we had brought to eat. When waves were big, people got very sick. We were holding on to one another because we were wet and cold.
We were praying.
We just wanted to live. We didn’t want to die here at sea. If we died here, our family will never be able to find us, find our bodies.

We had lost all hope. Then, I saw a bird. I thought it was strange to see a bird in the middle of nowhere. It brought back a little bit of hope. After that, I saw a butterfly. Then I saw a bee.

The next morning, we saw a ship, far away. Then, a speedboat. But we got very scared as we thought it was the Libyan Coast Guard. And suddenly, I saw two ladies in the speedboat. And I thought they cannot be from the Libyan Coast Guard. Because in the Libyan security agencies, ladies are not allowed to work such kinds of jobs. So, I assumed they must from Europe.

After four days, four nights, trying to survive in this sea, without hope, seeing these people are here to save us…  I cannot explain my feeling.
They were very friendly, telling us: “You do not need to be afraid.” And I was thinking I had never ever seen like such good people. Because people never help in such a way. I thought angels must be like these people. 

My aim, my hope, is to do the same as these guys.

I don’t want to be a billionaire. I don’t want to be very popular. But I just want to help the people, like people in this organisation. Whatever they are doing, I just want to do the same work.