Name: Yusupha

Age: 17

Native country: Gambia

Family: Mother dead. Grow up with his grandmather, now dead. No contact with the father.

Landing: December 2014 - Augusta (RG - Sicily)

I lived in Gambia until i was 8 years old. My dad is a business man, and for this reason we moved to Tripoli, in Libya. 

I've never been at the school and i've never worked. My dad used to leave me at home all the day long, so i did some cleaning house and watched movies. 

Luckly i never was in the jail.

One day a friend of my father came home and suddenly took me out and brought me on the boat. I had not even a chance to say goodbye to my dad; i don't even have his phone number, so i have no clue where he is right now. Nothing. 

On the boat we were around 90 persons, all men. Around 30 of them died before arriving in Italy. We kept some bodies on the boat, but other were thrown in the water. 

The boat got lost during the journey, and for this reason we took around 3-4 days before getting some help.

It was extremely hard. I thought all the time i was dying. I was not hungry, not thirsty. I just fasted and stayed crouched on my knees for all the journey, hoping the trip would end as soon as possible. 

At some point the boat got a technical problem and it started swamping, but luckly we got saved in time.

Once i will be transferred and i'll have documents, my first goal is to be educated and finding a job.

I don't want to go back to Africa. I'm alone and i wouldn't know where to live there.