Migrant shipwreck survivors grieve for children swept from their arms
PALERMO, Italy: Their children slipped out of their grasp as the boat overturned and were lost to the waves.
Now, traumatised parents brought to safety after a deadly Mediterranean shipwreck are being given psychological support in Sicily.
The crossing was supposed to be the start of a new life in Europe, but at the Caritasrun ‘Saint Rosalia’ centre in Palermo, grieving parents plucked from the sea off Libya sit numbly, watching those children that did survive and asking what the future now holds.
Psychologists, cultural mediators, volunteers and members of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) do what they can to comfort the 367 survivors brought to Sicily by the Irish patrol boat which rescued them after Wednesday’s disaster.
Wednesday’s shipwreck was the most tragic and poignant of all, because among the recovered bodies and missing people there were numerous children. — Anna Cullotta, Psychologist
On the patio, two veiled women are hugged in turn by psychologist Anna Cullotta, who has experience in helping migrant survivors.
Nearby, three children, still wearing the plastic shoes handed out as they got off the boat on Thursday, play a game of table football with a volunteer.
“Wednesday’s shipwreck was the most tragic and poignant of all, because among the recovered bodies and missing people there were numerous children,” Cullotta told AFP.
A young Syrian mother, who had hoped to join her husband in Sweden with their son, instead saw him drown as the fishing boat went down.
“She set off with the idea of a future, full of hope, then the tragedy.
She called her husband to tell him the news, and she hasn’t spoken since,” Cullotta said.
Scenes of violence and fear in the moments leading up to the tragedy were recounted by police Friday, who said survivors had described how the traffickers slashed migrants with knives and thrashed them with belts. — AFP