Somali teenager clings to hope for a better life

His story comes from the sea. When he speaks, in broken English, about what happened that summer night, his voice is quiet and calm, but his eyes still betray the same fears.

Mohamed Mougdin is a 16-year-old Somali. He is the only survivor of a horrific family tragedy at sea. He lost his mother Halima, 37, his brothers Ahmed, eight, and Shmsodin, six, and three sisters Amina, 10, Mana, four, and Sucaads, just two, on July 29, 2006.

There were over 30 people on that boat: at least 17 died that night. The rough seas capsized the boat and Mohamed managed to keep afloat by hanging on to a piece of wood from the wreckage and fighting for his life.

A passing ship with four Tunisian and Italian fishermen picked him up and brought him to Malta. He can never forget that terrible night: his family screaming and other people shouting for help.

Mohamed left Somalia when he was only two years old to move to Libya. That move involved a long desert crossing on foot. Just a short part of the journey was made by car. It was a journey to a freedom that never arrived.

"I can't remember anything about my town," he says. "I asked my family something about Somalia, but the only thing they told me is that they would never return".

In fact, the family left Somalia after a terrible episode. "One evening an armed criminal broke down the door of our house, asking for money. He threatened to kill everyone. My father begged him to leave us alone because he had no money. The criminal didn't believe him and shot my nine-month-old sister dead."

It was 1995 when the United Nations troops withdrew definitively from Somalia. Four years earlier, the civil war erupted again, involving more civilians in the fight for a independence.

Despite political mediation and NATO commitment, there are still serious problems in Somalia. Nowadays Somalia is also caught up in the strife between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Poverty and misery has brought the population to its knees. The war just completes the disastrous situation.

Unfortunately, things didn't improve when the family arrived in Libya. Mohamed's father Muhidin Mohamed Waladi, 51, worked hard as a street sweeper to let his son go to school, and his wife spent her time taking care of the children.

"When my father returned home in the evening, after a hard day's work, he was very tired. Sometimes people didn't pay him for his work," Mohamed remembers, adding: "It wasn't a good life. The Libyans insulted my brothers and me because we were Somali. We dreamed of a different world and we thought only Europe would be the answer to our hopes." They paid $2,400 for their last trip. Muhidin remained in Libya and he probably still does not know what happened to his family. Mohamed would like to see his father again, but he does not have any information about him.

Mohamed has been granted temporary humanitarian protection in Malta, thanks to the Emigrants' Commission which welcomed him a year ago. Now he lives at Dar is-Sliem in St Venera, with other unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors. He works in a supermarket, trying to start a new life, even if it is very difficult for him to rid himself of past shadows.

"I think the Maltese don't like foreigners very much," Mohamed says, "but my dream is only to have a better and safe life."

The Emigrants' Commission is a non-governmental, non-profitable, voluntary organisation, which was established to help and protect people in need by offering them free services, counselling and protection. Its role is counselling, tracing lost relatives, representing migrants and refugees with the local authorities, helping with language courses, providing useful contacts, and regularly organising cultural, social and religious activities.

"When the immigrants who were welcomed in our house become adults, they usually go to live alone," Mgr Philip Calleja explains. "But Mohamed's story is different." The Commission has located Mohamed's grandfather, a retired 75-year-old, who lives in Seattle, with his second wife and their children. Mohamed has no relatives here, so he is under legal custody.

In these circumstances, grandparents could consider the possibility of adopting him before he comes of age. Mohammed is excited at this opportunity to also meet his uncles in the US. At the moment Mohamed is waiting for news from the US Embassy.

Unfortunately, he is only one case in a great number: people who live every day as if it were their last, hoping for something different, and dreaming of the less fortunate in Africa being able, one day, to enjoy European-style human rights and comforts.