One year has passed since the Steccato di Cutro tragedy, when the Summer Love fishing boat sank on February 26, 2023, claiming the lives of 94 migrants, including 35 minors, with dozens more still missing.

For Firas El-Ghazi, a 41-year-old Syrian survivor, time seems to have halted at that moment.

"I don't know if I will ever be able to get all the suffering that I saw out of my head. They come to me in my dreams every night," he said at an event organized in Crotone a few days after the anniversary of the tragedy.

On that night, Ghazi lost his six-year-old grandson, Sultan. Both Sultan and an older grandson of Ghazi were thrown into the sea when the vessel ran aground and were dragged away by the sea currents, attached to a part of the boat.clinging to a part of the boat as they drifted for three hours until they were rescued by a patrol boat. For Sultan, however, it was too late. He had already frozen to death.

Along with about 50 family members of the victims and survivors, Ghazi returned to Crotone to commemorate the tragedy.

The Rete 26 Febbraio -- made up of over 400 associations and entities -- paid for the trip and organized three days of initiatives on 24-26 February in memory of the incident.

Also read: Cutro shipwreck survivors ask for help to reunite with family

'Fewer rights, we feel cheated'

In the weeks following the shipwreck, Ghazi took part in a delegation of survivors and relatives of the victims received at Palazzo Chigi in Rome by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

"We told her our stories and she was touched by them. She began crying," he said. The man is now in a refugee center in Hamburg. "What do I want? Give us the possibility to reunite with our families to help us get over this suffering," he said.

In Germany, Firas asked for international protection, which lasts three years and would enable him to bring family members to the country. However, the German authorities granted him only humanitarian protection, which is valid for only one year. "Our rights have decreased. And so I cannot request a family reunion. We feel cheated. No one kept their promises after the shipwreck off Calabria," Firas said.

'I regret coming to Germany and Europe'

In Syria he had a construction firm that he had to leave, he said, to avoid being killed because he was with the anti-government opposition. "I would like to get back to a normal life with my children and my wife, who are in Turkey," he said.

"I regret having come to Germany. I did it because I have relatives here and many friends and I was hoping that this country would have given me international protection to work and help my family in Turkey. Maybe Italy could have given me more. I do not know. My dreams are now linked to help from people and I do not know if they will come true. I even regret coming to Europe," he added.

Seeking justice and truth

Alidad Shiri, a 31-year-old Afghan writer and journalist residing in Bolzano, also attended the commemoration in Cutro. Having arrived in Italy in 2005, Shiri recounted his journey in a book titled 'Via dalla Pazza Guerra'. He too lost a relative in last year's shipwreck: a 17-year-old cousin whose body was never recovered.

"It is not easy to return. It is a scar that reopens. We are here to ask for truth and justice, which we did not see due to an avoidable massacre," he said in a speech representing the family members of the victims at the event "Noi Non Dimentichiamo", sponsored by the CGIL trade union alongside the Crotone branch of ARCI and other associations.

"My cousin is seen in one of the videos while he was on the boat. However, his body was never found and I do not know how to tell my aunt," he added, noting that they are "waiting for justice and truth."

"We saw that the smuggler was sentenced. However, we are waiting for a response also from the judiciary about the delays in rescue," he said.

Also read: Survivors return to Calabria one year after Cutro shipwreck