A letter penned by a Sudanese migrant — among dozens who died attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe — has gone viral on social media after journalists shared fragments of the text on their personal pages.
In the letter, the writer apologised to his mother, his love, and his siblings. His ambitions were modest: the price of his mother’s medicine, the repair of her teeth, a new phone for his sister, and a small sum for his brother before graduation.
“I am sorry, mother, because the ship sank with us and I couldn’t get there. Nor will I be able to send the money I borrowed to pay for the trip,” the letter began.
“Don’t be sad, mother, if they don’t find my body; what good will it do you now except the costs of transportation, shipping, burial, and condolences. I am sorry, mother, but I had to travel like other people.”
“Note that my dreams were not as big as others’. As you know, all my dreams were the size of a box of colon medicine for you, and the price of fixing your teeth,” he wrote.
He addresses his lover: “I am sorry, my love, because I built you a house of illusion, a beautiful home like the ones we used to watch in the movies.”
“I am sorry, my beautiful home, because I will not hang my coat behind the door. I am sorry, divers and search teams for the missing, for I do not know the name of the sea I drowned in”, he added.
The writer extended his gratitude not to the world that failed him, but to the sea that took him in the final lines of his letter.
“Rest assured, asylum office, I will not be a heavy burden on you. Thank you, sea, for welcoming us without a visa or a passport. Thank you to the fish that will share my flesh and will not ask me about my religion or political affiliation.”
“Thank you to the news channels that will report the news of our death for five minutes every hour for two days. Thank you for your grief for us when you hear the news. I am not sorry that I drowned. I have rested and brought relief [to others].”
Journalists who came across the letter did not reveal the writer’s identity.
“A gift to the civilized world,” one journalist wrote. “He fled death, so the sea embraced him. I advise you to read, but do not weep, because the tears have dried up for my family and siblings due to the injustice that feeds their lives every day.”
The letter appears to have been scrawled in the moments before the boat went under.
Reportedly, a boat carrying around 75 Sudanese migrants capsized during its journey from Tobruk, Libya, to Greece, according to the International Organization for Migration.
At least 52 people from villages on Khartoum’s eastern border with Gezira drowned. The UN refugee agency estimated 74 passengers were on board, with 13 survivors.