Mariame* and Fara* (names changed to protect identity) are two sisters from Guinea Conakry. Their parents' dream was to give their two beloved daughters a better future in Europe, but only one of the two sisters made it.

In a shelter run by Italian nuns in the province of Agrigento, Sicily, we meet Mariame who arrived alone in Lampedusa on November 4 aboard a migrant boat. She is one of many unaccompanied minors reaching the Italian coast.

At the shelter, Mariame has already started to recover, benefiting from much-needed physical and psychological rest. We speak with her in a quiet room adorned with a statue of the Virgin Mary, where a nun gently holds her hand.

"It was the beginning of 2023 when I started my journey with my sister Fara, 14 years old. Our parents wanted a better future for us. My father was a respected doctor and his dream was for my sister and I to go to France to study. Before our departure from Guinea, he gave us all his savings which were around 350 euros."

Mariame wants to tell her story. She is tall, her hair is very short; she shaved her head as many other women do before starting their journey through the desert. This way, young girls try to look like boys to avoid any attention from soldiers and militias.

Losing her loved ones

"Our nightmare started when we tried to cross the border between Mali and Algeria in the village of Inafarak. There was a group of militias who separated me and my sister in two different prisons. Fara was raped and then killed by the same men. I had to continue traveling without my little sister," Mariame says.

After Fara’s death, Mariam had to make a stop in a place in Algeria near the border with Tunisia. "Smugglers told me that my mother and father had been decapitated. To my horror, I discovered it was true.

"There were hundreds of us in the desert and when we arrived at the border between Algeria and Tunisia, the Tunisian police pushed us back into Algeria. Tunisian policemen whipped me several times.

"It was the Tunisian police," Mariam explains while she points to her right shoulder, repeatedly struck by the metal barrels of police guns.  

"In September 2023, we were able to cross the border into Tunisia, and after a short period, smugglers took us to Sfax. There were around 60 people forced into a small iron boat. It was 7 meters long and named Topaz."

Arrival in Italy

After crossing international waters, our unstable and crowded iron boat was rescued by the Italian Coast Guard in front of the island of Lampedusa. "Everyone was really excited on board and so the boat capsized. Thank God everyone was rescued and safe."

From Lampedusa, Mariame was transferred to the mainland in Agrigento as an urgent medical case. "At the hospital, doctors took care of her legs burnt by petrol when the boat capsized, and they started to treat her for iron deficiency because she was so skinny at the moment of her arrival”, the Sicilian nun who welcomed her explained.

"I don’t have any money. The militias and police stole everything, our parents’ savings. Please help me get to France. This is my father, my mother and my sister’s dream. I need to go to France to study."

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Minors arriving alone

Although at the end of November 2024, there has been a decrease of more than 60 percent in immigrant arrivals in Italy compared to last year, what has not changed are the stories of unaccompanied minors who risk their lives trying to reach the Mediterranean Sea.

According to Save The Children, among the over 61,900 migrants arriving this year in Italy, 10-12 percent are unaccompanied minors -- the same percentage as last year when the number of arrivals was 152,216.

Unaccompanied female minors are more exposed to violence than men when traveling, explains Niccolò Gargaglia, head of the protection of minor migrants for Save the Children: "Young women are exposed to all kinds of violence throughout their journey. We collected stories of women who tried to look like a boy to escape violence. Women with shaved heads and their breasts flattened. 12 percent of unaccompanied minors arriving in Italy are women, 87 percent men."

More than 24 percent of unaccompanied minors in Italy are found in Sicily, the first port of arrival.

More than half, or 60 percent, of the unaccompanied minors who disappear in Italy are migrants. Gargaglia says this happens for several reasons: "They try to reach another country in Europe because they don’t want to stay in Italy and we will never know how many of them end up in criminal and trafficking networks."

Mariame has already left the shelter in Agrigento to go to another structure for only women in southern Italy. "In this short period here, surrounded by nuns, I have been loved like a daughter. I’m Christian and I hope to be christened in the future," Mariame concludes, determined to get to France for her father’s sake and start a new life there.

*names changed

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