A migrant whose picture was published worldwide after he arrived in Malta in a group that was at the centre of the pushback controversy, has spoken of his harrowing life while insisting that he would rather die than return to Libya.

Mohammed Ilmi Adam left Somalia, 17, migrated in search of his parents. His father went missing when he was four, and his mother had gone to look for him. 

His journey took him through Ethiopia and Sudan before ending up in Libya, where he lived for three months. There, he says, migrants used to get beaten and robbed. 

Somali brokers advised him how to reach Europe and he was asked to pay $400 for the journey to Italy.

On seeing the flimsy boat, he wanted to turn back.  “I did not want to go on board but I was forced... they beat me with wooden bats and iron rods. That’s how I was forced,” he says.

“When I was thrown on the boat, most of the other people were bigger than me so they pushed me around until I was in a very small, crammed place. I was confused, nauseated and very dizzy, until someone gave me some water.”

The journey across the Mediterranean Sea took three days, during which he witnessed several people agonising over petrol burns and one woman giving birth on board.

On the third day, they encountered a Maltese patrol boat.

“The boat first told us to continue with our journey but some of us did not want to because they were injured or exhausted. When the patrol boat started to leave, some people jumped into the sea to make sure they were rescued.”

See the interview details in The Sunday Times of Malta and timesofmalta.com premium.