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ADDIS ABABA, May 15 (Reuters) – Silence gradually replaced the screams around Dejene Degefa as her travel companions choked one by one inside a closed metal container. He struggled to stay conscious, but eventually passed out, only woke up to the rescue sounds.
Dejene was one of 14 people rescued alive from the back of a truck on the Malawi-Mozambique border on March 24. Police found 64 bodies inside.
“I was hitting the sides of the container; I was even hitting people close to me, “said Dejene, 18.” I knew others were dying, and I felt in my heart that I was dying too. ”
He and the other survivors were taken to the hospital and then to an immigration center in Mozambique, where they were held for weeks before being repatriated to Ethiopia by the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations agency that helps governments and migrants.
Desperate to see their families, the group had to quarantine for 14 days until they tested negative for COVID-19. Dejene spoke to Reuters the day they were released.
Dejene and his friends decided to escape poverty at home by looking for work abroad on the so-called “southern route”, which takes migrants to South Africa instead of Europe.
He said the migrants had resisted crowding into the small container to cross the border, but the smugglers lashed out, forcing the desperate group to enter.
A woman passed out in the dark in 15 minutes, she said. Panic spread quickly; a mass of arms and legs stirred. He was kicked, passed out and woke up with a body on top of him.
Dejene’s friend, Mulugeta, 19, told Reuters how he had helped save the group by hitting the side of the truck when he heard voices at a checkpoint. When the doors opened, he led the unconscious Dejene out.
“When I opened my eyes … I saw there was a cloudy sky and that’s how I knew he was alive,” Dejene told Reuters.
A fifth-grade deserter from the southern region of Ethiopia, he left his town in September 2019 with 3,000 birr ($ 90) and an identification card. Dejene will never attempt to return to South Africa, he said. All he wants is to see his family.
“I’d rather beg him to feed me than go back,” he said. “I wish I could hug everyone I know, but given the current circumstances, I can only greet them from afar.” ($ 1 = 33.7500 birr) (Katharine Houreld and Raissa Kasolowsky edition)
