Family Dreads the Worst as Four Men and a Boy are Unaccounted for Following Mediterranean Ship Tragedy

With hopes for an improved quality of life far from their conflict-ridden hometown in northeastern Syria, four men and a 14-year-old boy from the Sheikhi family embarked on a journey towards Europe.

Ignoring the admonitions of an elderly relative, the group boarded a fishing trawler from Libya to Italy, intending to traverse Europe overland and reach Germany.

However, instead of arriving in Italy, the boat toppled over and sank on Wednesday in the vast depths of the Mediterranean, approximately 75 kilometers (45 miles) off the coast of Greece. The vessel might have been carrying around 750 passengers. As of early Friday, hundreds were still unaccounted for during the final day of search operations. If officials’ expected findings align with the families’ worst apprehensions, this could be among the deadliest shipwrecks in the Mediterranean in recent memory.

Five members of a single family were on board, including 29-year-old Ali Sheikhi, a father of three boys. He left his wife and young children, aged 6, 5, and 2, in hopes of reuniting in Europe and providing them with a better education, a luxury they could no longer avail in their homeland.

Ali’s brother, 38-year-old Abdo Sheikhi, said, “He wanted to save his children.” Abdo himself had made it to Germany seven years prior, while his five relatives departed from Kobani, a border town near Turkey, in early March.

Once seen as a beacon of triumph against the Islamic State militants in 2015, Kobani now bears the scars of more than a decade of war and national discord, much like the rest of Syria. With no investment or peace prospects, many in northeastern Syria are risking higher stakes following the path of previous migrants to Europe, primarily due to Turkey fortifying its borders and making land crossings more challenging.

Several of the missing Syrians were from Daraa, a region in southernmost Syria, near the Jordanian border.

Abdo’s five relatives managed to pass through government-controlled Syria to Lebanon, then flew to Cairo before making their way to Tripoli, and finally arriving in Tobruk, Libya by land. Apart from the funds used to get to Libya, they were expected to pay $6,000 each to the traffickers upon arrival in Italy.

“We thought they would get there safely in three or four days,” said Mohamed Abdi Marwan, an uncle, speaking over the phone from the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani.

Nine survivors were detained on Thursday on suspicion of being involved in organizing the ill-fated voyage, according to the Greek coast guard. State-run ERT TV reported the suspects were all Egyptian.

“In Syria, there is no chance for a decent life,” Abdo Sheikhi stated. Despite his warnings about the dangerous and long route via Libya, he said, “They were determined. They believed they could make it too.”

Another German-based relative, Shahin, said the last he heard from his kin, they complained about the harsh conditions during their prolonged wait in Libya. They were kept in confined spaces to evade detection, often deprived of their phones, and received inadequate food.

“They were squeezed seven to a room… They didn’t see the sun,” Shahin said. Despite their melancholy and despair, they wouldn’t consider returning to Syria.

On the eve of their departure, the men from the Sheikhi family notified their relatives that they would soon embark on a boat supposedly carrying 300 people, as the elder Sheikhi informed.

They waited for a confirmation photograph from Italy, which never arrived.

Abdo Sheikhi said, “The (sm

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More about Mediterranean ship disaster

• BBC News: Mediterranean shipwreck: Relatives fear worst after boat disaster
• Al Jazeera: Mediterranean shipwreck: Hundreds feared dead off Greece
• The Guardian: Mediterranean shipwreck may be worst in recent history, say officials