Mohammed Abdel Laal Shemi with his daughter Lamar.

As Malta and Italy continue to be in close contact over the people rescued and taken to Lampedusa, relatives in Malta are still in the dark on the fate of their loved ones.

One of them is Syrian national Mohammed Abdel Laal Shemi, who has received no news on his wife and one of his five-year-old twin daughters, who he hopes are still alive in Lampedusa.

Mr Laal Shemi fainted last week when someone from the Syrian community living in Malta told him he had spotted his daughter in the arms of a rescuer.

However, there is a strong possibility that the footage this person saw was shot in Malta and that the girl he is claiming to have seen was Mr Laal Shemi’s other twin daughter, Lamar, who survived the trip and is living by his side at the Ħal Far open centre.

“I pray to God, I pray all the time, that my wife and daughter are still alive. I pray and pray but I also thank the Lord that at least I have her left. She is my everything,” Mr Laal Shemi told this newspaper. Another couple who survived the trip, Aisha and her husband Alaa Mustafa – whose 17-month-old daughter was rescued and taken by the Italian navy to Lampedusa – were not at the camp when Times of Malta visited yesterday morning.