Maeda Hussaini wanted to be an astronaut and even wrote to NASA, the American space agency. Ambition might seem out of reach for a 17-year-old Afghan girl, but for her the sky was the limit.
Even when the Taliban seized power in 2021 and her family fled to Iran, Maeda refused to give up on her dream.
The young woman decided to travel by land to Turkey and risk crossing the sea to continue her studies in Europe.
His mother, Mahtab, was anxious, but Maeda finally convinced her.
“I told her: ‘Go daughter, may God protect you,'” Mahtab says. “She was capable.”
Maeda spent four days at sea after the ship he boarded left Turkey on February 22.
“Hello mom, I hope you are well. I am well and happy. I am still on the boat. We will leave in 30 minutes,” he said in his last voice message to Mahtab, who could hear the sound of the boat’s engine in the background and wave.
After that, a final text: “My dear mom, I’m almost in Italy, we’ll be down soon, happy and healthy. Don’t worry.”
Then came the news that the boat packed with migrants had sunk in a rough sea within sight of Crotone, on the southern coast of Italy.
Of about 200 people thought to be on board, at least 86 died. Maeda’s body was found almost three weeks later.; others are still missing.
chasing a dream
It is rare for young women to make such trips alone because they are so risky, but Mahtab says her eldest daughter was very determined.
seven months before, Maeda had been shot in the leg while crossing from Iran to Turkey.says his family.
It is not clear who shot him: border guards on both sides are armed, as are people smugglers.
But that didn’t seem to deter the young woman: she spent 10 days with the bullet in her leg, fearing deportation if authorities found out she had seen a doctor, before other immigrants took her to a clinic to have it removed.
Before making the trip to Crotone, Maeda carried out several failed attempts to reach Europe.
“I was worried about her and asked her to go back to Iran,” Mahtab says. “I said, ‘Aren’t you tired of trying over and over again to go abroad?'”
In 2022, Afghans accounted for 13% of all asylum applications in the 27-member European Union, Switzerland and Norway, according to official figures.
Turkey is the main transit point for Afghans trying to reach Europe. Either they go up the Balkans or try to cross by sea to reach countries like Italy, as Maeda did.
The risks are high. Monitoring groups note that more than 20,000 people have died or disappeared in the central Mediterranean Sea since 2014.
Two survivors of the wreck of the boat Maeda was on told the BBC that it broke down shortly after leaving the Turkish coast. The human smugglers sent another boat and people were transferred to it.
Meraj, an Afghan who was on the boat, says that the navigation was rough., but who were feeling optimistic as they got closer to land. (We do not publish his real name to protect his identity.)
“Another boat approached us and directed its lights at our boat. Our captains panicked and tried to turn the boat around,” he says.
“Our boat went around in a circle, then made another circle. On the third circle, he hit something hard and shattered.. Families and children were on the lower deck, men and single immigrants were on the upper deck,” Meraj continues.
“I remember the boat filled with water, it was up to my neck, then I smelled the oil and passed out. I don’t remember what happened next.”
Meraj, one of the 80 survivors, was washed ashore. The fate of his relatives who were also on the ship is unknown.
Italian authorities arrested three people, a Turkish man and two Pakistanis believed to be the “captains” of the ship.
Police estimate that each passenger paid $8,500 for a place on the boat.
“I only found my brother’s shoes”
As news of the shipwreck spread, families began arriving in southern Italy hoping to find their missing relatives.
Laila Timory, 47, drove nonstop from Germany.
“I thought I would finally see my brother after all these years.”
Laila left Afghanistan’s Kunduz province in 2015. She still remembers the brief farewell she had with her brother, Zabih, a government lawyer who feared the Taliban.
“We apologize in case we never see each other again in the future,” he says.
Zabih Timory, 33, his wife Mina, 23, and their children Haseeb, Arif and Akif were all on the boat when it capsized on February 26.
“When I arrived at the place, the first thing I found was the corpse of my 18-month-old nephew Haseeb.“Laila told the BBC.
“They [las autoridades italianas] They took me to a room and gave me photos to identify. Photos of the dead, photos of people in the hospital, and photos of survivors who are in the camp. But I couldn’t see the rest of my family.”
Then Laila went to the beach to look for them.
“I couldn’t just sit and wait, I saw wreckage from the boat, I saw clothes. I had a feeling my brother might be buried in the sand, waiting for my help,” he says.
“All I could find were his shoes. Later I found a sweater and his wife’s bag.”
“I have big dreams”
Laila and her daughter spent almost a fortnight searching; by then, the bodies of Mina and Akif had been found and transferred along with Haseeb’s to Germany.
But Zabih and Arif are still missing. Laila’s only hope is that her bodies will finally wash up on shore.
“It’s very difficult. We heard that half the people on the boat drowned and are at the bottom of the sea. Some bodies can’t even be recognized after being in the water all this time,” he says.
“All we want is to find the bodies of our loved ones to send them home, to bury them so they can rest in peace.”
Back in Iran, Maeda’s parents spent weeks praying for good news.
As Afghan refugees in Iran, they were unable to obtain a visa to travel to Italy and search for Maeda themselves.
While waiting, Mahtab did not allow anyone to hold a funeral for her daughter or share her condolences.
Arriving in Europe before her 18th birthday, Maeda hoped she could get her parents and three younger siblings to join her as part of a family reunification plan.
“She always said: ‘Mom please don’t make me get married when I’m as young as you‘” recalls Mahtab.
“I have big dreams. I know that my father is a common worker and can’t do much, so I have to go abroad to succeed.”
Now you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss out on our best content.
BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-65027298, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-03-22 04:10:06
#young #woman #dreamed #astronaut #died #shipwreck #Mediterranean