Testimony of a survivor of the shipwreck in Pylos

The situation on the boat was terrible. From the first day, we had felt things were not well at all because there were too many people on board, about 700 to 750, so we were scared as it was our first sea travel. We didn’t understand exactly what would happen to us, so we prayed to God. We didn’t know if we would make it alive or not. 

When the coast guard vessel arrived, we hoped we might be saved, as after 5 days and nights at sea we had neither no food nor drinkable water, and were taking water from the sea to drink… That’s why as soon as we saw the coast guards, we felt we would stay alive. But what always happens is what God wants! What happened to us had never occurred within the 5 days of the journey. We had reached there with great difficulty, trying in every way. But everyone knows what the Coast Guard did to us after! 

However, they did all that, and we didn’t understand why they did this at the moment. That incident is something we will never forget in our entire lives! Had they not done this, meaning tying our boat with the rope and pulling it, then maybe these people who are missing or who are no longer in this world would have been saved and would be alive!

When that happened and our ship capsized and we ended up in the water, we were

helpless in our struggle for life! We didn’t understand anything, we didn’t know what to do because we couldn’t see a thing in the sea at that time, there was only darkness and water everywhere!

As soon as the ship capsized, some of us tried to climb onto it and screamed for help. We were shouting but no one came to help us! The coast guard vessel went far away and stopped there. We didn’t know what to do on the overturned ship. We were trying to hold onto each other to pull people from the sea and bring them on board. 

How could we know the boat would slowly sink, capsized. Slowly it sank completely and we all ended up in the sea hanging on to one another. We then broke away from one another, we took distance so we would not hang on to one another. That is, if I could save myself, then others shouldn’t grab me and pull me down and drown me, or the reverse, I shouldn’t drag and drown them. That’s why we tried to separate so we could survive longer in the sea. We had hope within us that if we got close to the coast guard lights and they saw us, they would maybe save us. 

We were on a thin line between life and death! Once to life and once to death, like that. It was a very difficult situation.  In all our life we won’t forget what happened. We swam for a long time with the clothes we were wearing, feeling as if we had no strength left in our bodies. We were extremely tired! We already felt extremely weak because we hadn’t eaten or drunk water for 5 days. We tried, slowly, and reached close to the ship. When we had swum more than half the distance in the sea, the coast guards lowered a speedboat. Those who were saved by swimming and managed to reach the coast guard vessel on their own, were picked up by them.

We were 5 relatives together, my brother-in-law, me and another 3 cousins. We had started the trip together from Pakistan. How could we know we were getting into a “death trip”! That something like this would happen to us. It was the first time I was traveling by sea in my life. We had started our journey from home with dreams of a better future. The five of us hoped for many things, and entirely different things happened to us. I can’t think of the words to say about the people who were lost… The scenes were shocking. Now, almost a year has gone by, and we have no idea what exactly happened to them.

When they rescued us, we didn’t know which country the coast guards were from, where they were taking us, what would happen to us, etc. We didn’t know anything. Later, as time passed, we started feeling somewhat better. But even though we may seem better now, what happened in our lives will never be forgotten. It feels like something is breaking inside people, that’s how we feel, broken from within… 

We have been in a camp for a year. They didn’t inform us or support us, nor our relatives. They just put us in the camp as if to say “come, wait, and leave”. This is what is happening to us.

Our demands? What demand can we have? Only a request. It’s their country, it’s their coast guard. We came here, as we say, “broken and uprooted”. We lost our loved ones from inside our hands, in front of our very eyes we lost them. On the Greek coast guard I will only say: if they are responsible for the boat tragedy, then they should be punished, they should publicly say whose fault was it? Whether they would have rescued us or not? Only themselves and God know. We don’t know if they came to rescue us or not. We only ask that justice be served to us.

No rich person would start such a journey. The poor, who are already exhausted by their country’s situation and cannot survive in Pakistan, are the ones who decide to leave Pakistan hoping to reach Europe and build a future for themselves and their children. 

But who knew that in the journey meant to build their and their children’s future, that future would be destroyed forever! I plead with the Greek government to deliver justice to their families so they can live a somewhat better life. And for us to be supported, to receive documents or to take any step for us so that we may at least once see our families in Pakistan.

Because they are in great pain. Externally they may seem fine, but from the inside they are broken. Someone has a young son, another a young brother, someone has a husband, victims of this disaster, and they have no one to support their family. So I implore you for such a step to be taken so they can live a better life somehow.

Bilal*, survivor of the shipwreck in Pylos