“Mom I’m thirsty.” These would have been the last words of Loujin Ahmed Nasif, a four-year-old Syrian girl, whose life was broken on a boat, in an attempt to probably arrive in Italy. Loujin had been traveling from Lebanon, with her mother and her little sister of just one year, for more than ten days, aboard a fishing boat with sixty migrants, with no more food or water. She died of thirst in the middle of the sea on that boat that no one wanted to help, despite repeated calls from the Alarm Phone. To tell another tragic story of the lack of a rescue device in the Mediterranean is the activist Soufi Nawal, for years a point of reference in Sicily for the Syrian community: «Loujin died because of European policies! She died in the arms of her mother while she said “mum I’m thirsty” ».
The activist in spreading the news posted on Facebook a smiling photo of the little Loujin: the girl is portrayed with pigtails, a pink dress and feet on the beach, with the sunset light and the sea behind her. «I don’t think there are so many words to say… The photo speaks for itself – writes Nawal -. My baby … Excuse me! I tried my best, but some very bad adults have decided not to send help to you ».
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The boat on which Loujin’s mother had embarked with her two young daughters – the four-year-old and Mira, her little sister of just one year – first asked for help from the authorities of the Sar areas she crossed – the Maltese one before and the Greek one then – but also to the many merchant ships passing by. However, no institutional aid responded. When finally, sent by the Greek authorities, a merchant ship rescued the boat, it was too late for the little one: from the ship they requested an urgent medical evacuation but when the helicopter rescue arrived Loujin was already dead. Little Mira, on the other hand, is now hospitalized in serious condition for having drunk too much sea water in an attempt to overcome the heat.
Little Loujin left in the same hours that it was learned of the disappearance of Queen Elizabeth II. She went into her in total inattention “Excuse me – writes the activist – and know that my heart was beating very fast every time that turaya you had on board that boat called me back”. “Now – concludes the post – I know almost for sure, that two other adults are still missing, because they fell into the water during the rescue operations …”.