Dilba, a 31-year-old Kurdish mother from the Syrian city of Kobani, shared her story with InfoMigrants aboard the Geo Barents rescue ship. She and her three children endured nine months of suffering in Libya and then nearly lost their lives at sea. They currently live in refugee accommodation in Germany, while Dilba's husband remains in Syria, hoping to apply for family reunification.
I am from the city of Kobani, located on the Syrian-Turkish border… I was born in Damascus and lived my whole life there, but when the war began, I moved to Kobani. I got married there and have three children, two boys and a girl. We suffered in Kobani from the siege of ISIS, difficult war conditions and harsh living conditions … ISIS attacked Kobani.
I wanted to join the other women and fight against ISIS, but I had just given birth to my daughter and I also had my other children.
ISIS forced us to flee to Turkey. At that time, Turkey opened its borders. We remained there until Kobani was liberated…We returned to rebuild and reconstruct it despite the poor living conditions, no electricity, no water, and the remnants of war and bombs everywhere. They destroyed the country, but we rebuilt it again.
But now Turkey has resumed bombing us, targeting residential areas, electricity, and gas facilities. We went for days, weeks, and months without electricity. We lost our basic livelihoods. Every month or every 20 days, Turkey would bomb us. They also targeted medical sites and hospitals…there were no doctors, nurses or ambulances… The Turkish occupation tried to destroy Kobani's infrastructure. Half of Kobani's residents were displaced by the Turkish occupation. You could not live safely. Every two or three days there was bombing and the sound of bombs and gunfire, in a place already with difficult living conditions.
Smugglers 'put the gun to our heads and forced us to go onto this boat'
On May 31, I left for Libya from Damascus airport to Benghazi airport, hoping to reach Europe by sea to Italy. I suffered in Libya for nine months.
In Libya, the living conditions were very difficult, especially for those detained. People try to cross the sea twice or more. The prison conditions were extremely tough, only one meal – a piece of bread with some cheese for the whole day, even for the children.
We moved from city to city until we reached Tripoli, Zuwara, and Sabratha. From Sabratha, we started a difficult journey in the sea with high waves. We almost died.
We thought it would be a big ship…but when we saw the boat it was a small boat.
The smugglers had guns… one turned to us and pushed us into the boat because we didn't want to get into the boat…all the children, women and men… but they put the gun to our heads and forced us to go onto this boat and into the sea. It was horrible, I was so, so scared.
When we were in the middle of the sea I was so scared I cried…I looked at my children and thought they are too young to die in this water…the weather was very, very bad…the boat went up and down, the situation was very bad. All the passengers were crying. I looked around me and saw all blue, the sky was blue and the sea was blue, the boat was blue, all around me was blue, I felt so confused and scared. I prayed to God, all of us prayed to God to save us…
'I want to travel the world and save people'
Around 4:30 pm the rescue ship from Doctors Without Borders spotted us and saved us.
There were 139 people on the boat, crowded with children, women, the elderly. There was barely any room to move on the boat, we were packed tightly – on the brink of death. The boat nearly capsized multiple times from the high waves…
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We have experienced all kinds of humiliation and degradation. Everything was terrible, what we went through in Libya and Syria because of the war and the conditions, that's why I was forced to travel to Europe to seek a better life for myself and my children. I hope they can receive a better education and live in a place free from bombings and displacement. The war has exhausted us mentally. Living in Syria under the harsh conditions of war has drained us…
I want to travel the world and save people, help people who want to migrate to Europe because I know how much they are suffering, I know how much pain there is in Libya, and how they dream about a new life in Europe so that they can study and so that their children can study. I want a degree and I want to work… I would love to work for an organization where I can travel the world and help people!
*This series is based on an investigation conducted between February and May 2024 across Germany, Italy, and the Central Mediterranean. The investigation included a period on board the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) search and rescue ship, the Geo Barents, from January 30 to February 10. InfoMigrants was unable to independently verify the personal testimonies provided by migrant individuals. Arabic-English translator: Rama Jarmakani