When they made their decision to emigrate by sea with their two young families, Mostafa Misto, Wissam al-Talawi and others did not imagine that death would be in sight for them.
All that the taxi driver, Mustafa Misto, dreamed of while leaving Lebanon was to feed and educate his children.
Mustafa is one of the victims of the death boat found by the Syrian authorities on Thursday, after their boat that set off from northern Lebanon sank with dozens of migrants on board.
In Bab al-Raml, a neighborhood in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, the family cries for their affliction, after being informed that Mustafa drowned with his three children, while his wife survived.
One of Mustafa’s relatives says, “He did not go for a walk outside or for the weekend. His dream was not to obtain another nationality but to enroll his children in a school and feed them.”
The bodies of at least 77 people have been found so far, and twenty others have been rescued, while others are still missing.
Mustafa left with his family, after paying between three thousand and five thousand dollars for each person to smugglers, according to one of his family members. He collected the required amount after he sold his car and borrowed money from his brothers and his mother sold her jewelry.
In turn, Wissam al-Talawi left with his wife and their four children on the boat, so that the family reported his survival, while his two daughters (five and nine years old) died and his wife and two other children are still missing.
The family, according to Wissam’s brother Ahmed, received the body of the two girls, and they were buried in their birthplace in the Akkar region (north).
Wissam is currently receiving treatment at Al-Basel Hospital in Tartous, along with 19 other people who were rescued from the sea.
“We woke up on Thursday and didn’t find my brother, who works in a cleaning company,” Ahmed says.
He added, “He was unable to secure his livelihood and educate his children.”
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