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‘They threw his body into the ocean’

Harry December 1, 2024

The family of beauty salon owner Fathi Hussein is in deep mourning at their home in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu after her horrific death at sea after a deal with migrant smugglers to take her to the French island of Mayotte went wrong.

“Survivors told us he died of starvation,” the 26-year-old’s half-sister Samira told the BBC by phone. he said.

The family learned that Fathi died on one of two small boats that drifted in the Indian Ocean for about 14 days after being abandoned by smugglers.

“People were eating raw fish and drinking sea water, but he refused. They (survivors) said he started hallucinating before he died. Then they threw his body into the ocean,” Samira told the BBC.

Fathi’s family learned of his death from his Somali brothers, who were rescued by fishermen off the coast of Madagascar about a week ago.

The International Organization for Migration (IMO) said: Two boats had 70 people on board when they capsized.While 24 people lost their lives, 48 people survived.

Hundreds of migrants are believed to die each year trying to reach the tiny French island, located about 300 kilometers northwest of Madagascar.

On 1 November, Fathi flew from Mogadishu to the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa and a few days later set out by boat for Mayotte; it was a perilous journey of more than 1,100 km across the Indian Ocean.

Samira says they were stunned by Fathi’s decision because he had a successful business in Mogadishu and lived in the middle-class neighborhood of Yaqshid.

Samira says Fathi hid his plan from the family, sharing his secret only with his younger sisters and telling her that he paid traffickers with the money he earned from running the beauty salon.

“He hated the ocean. I don’t know why and how he made this decision. I wish I could hug him,” he adds.

Survivors told Fathi’s family that the beauty parlor owner and all other passengers were on a large boat when they left Mombasa.

However, during the journey, the smugglers said that the boat had mechanical problems and would have to turn back.

Then, before returning to Kenya, the smugglers put all the migrants on two small boats, assuring them, “You will reach Mayotte in three hours.”

But Samira says “this period extended to 14 days”, leading to the death of her sister and others.

Samira says some of the survivors suspect that the smugglers deliberately left them stranded at sea because they had been paid and did not intend to take them to Mayotte.

IMO regional officer Frantz Celestin told the BBC it was becoming increasingly common for migrants to risk their lives trying to reach the French island.

“Recently, 25 people died on the same journey, mostly through Comoros and Madagascar. Overall, this year has been the deadliest year for migrants,” he says.

Migrants on a small boat try to reach Mayotte. — Migrants hope reaching Mayotte will help them reach Europe (Getty Images)

The BBC spoke to five Somali migrants trying to reach Mayotte.

They told us that there are two main roads from Somalia to the island.

Some travel by boat from Mombasa via the Comoros islands, which are much closer to Mayotte, while those with more money fly to Ethiopia and then Madagascar because Somali passport holders are eligible for a visa on arrival.

From there they take a small boat to Mayotte, hoping this will lead to gaining a French passport and opening the door to Europe.

Khadar Mohamed is one of the lucky few who survived this dangerous route.

He arrived in Mayotte 11 months ago but clearly remembers the ordeal he went through to reach the island from Madagascar.

“When I arrived in Madagascar, I was taken to the boat owner’s house. We stayed there for 14 days. We were a mixture of Somalis and Malagasy,” he says.

The number of people waiting increased to 70. They were then put on a boat and taken across a river to the open ocean.

Khadar says he left Somalia because of the threat posed by al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab, which is fighting to overthrow the government.

“I left my country for my safety. I was a business owner and I couldn’t do my job because of Al-Shabab,” he says.

Families of some of the victims say the smugglers were paid around $6,000 (£4,700) for the trip from Mombasa to Mayotte, with half the money given in advance.

The BBC has seen accounts on social media platform TikTok advertising similar trips to Mayotte and even other parts of Europe.

The ads claim operators can take people to Mayotte on large tourist boats, but families of the victims say smugglers use much smaller fishing boats called “kwassa”.

The French government has not commented on the latest tragedy.

Somali Foreign Minister Ahmed Muallim Fiqi said his government was making efforts to contact survivors and bring them back home.

Fathi’s family said they reported a smuggler they suspected their daughter had contact with in Mogadishu to the authorities, and he was arrested but later released on bail.

Samira says the pain of not knowing how her sister felt in her final moments will stay with her forever.

“I wish he could have talked to me and told me about his decision. He could have said goodbye to me… now I don’t know how to process his death,” she says.

Additional reporting by Marina Daras.