By Athena Papakosta

The last time Salah Abd Rabu Hussein and Mohamed Saleh saw their 18-year-old son, Gahia, was a month ago. Today, almost a week after the shipwreck at Pylosstill praying for a miracle.

When Gahia Saleh said goodbye to them, he did not tell them where he was going. “He gave me a kiss on the forehead as if he knew it might be the last time he sees me” says today, his mother who, seeing him leave the house, one afternoon in the middle of May, believed that that night the her son would spend it with friends.

The next day he had not returned and his parents discovered that Gahia together with his cousin and four other men had started their journey to Libya. They first arrived in Alexandria and then headed to the city of Shallum where their traffickers took them across the border.

“He wanted to help us” says his father who together with his wife tried to convince him – already at the beginning of the year – not to leave Egypt risking his life as a passenger on one of these ships of death from Libya bound for Europe.

The 18-year-old Gahia was the second child of the family of six. He helped his father who is a farmer and also worked as a day laborer for $60 a month.

As time passed, the financial situation of his family went from bad to worse and he was so stubborn to do what so many of his compatriots had dared: to leave despite the dangers and reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean. His ultimate goal was to be able to help his family by sending them money from afar.

His parents, with the help of relatives, were looking for his tracks so that Gahia could return safely. They spoke to Egyptians living in Libya who put them in touch with traffickers operating between Egypt and Libya. It was already late.

Gahia was one of 750 passengers on the fishing boat. In this the 35 were from his village. Only six have survived and are among the total of 104 survivors. His parents are still unaware of his fate.

“I want my son. I want my son dead or alive” shouts his mother between sobs and with her face hidden. Can any of us help her? Certainly not. To understand her, though? Yes.

At the same time, Zohaib Shamrez, a Pakistani citizen, arrived in Kalamata from Barcelona. He is looking for his uncle, 40 years old. His name was Nadeem Muham. “We spoke on the phone five minutes before he boarded the fishing boat. I told him not to. I was afraid. He told me he had no other choice.”

Zohaib will now give a DNA sample to find out if one of the 81 bodies recovered belongs to his uncle. Speaking to foreign news agencies, he makes sure to show his photo. He repeats that he was a father of three children and that he started this journey from Pakistan so that they could have a better life since the family’s financial situation was poor.

A drama within a drama. How else to describe the stories of the bereaved of the world? How else to describe at the same time the ongoing agony of the relatives who hope for a miracle, who desperately search for their own in the bodies that have been recovered with the fear that they will not be among them but that they will remain nameless dead, pieces of an endless nightmare and “buried” forever in a watery grave.

(Gahia’s parents and nephew Nadeem spoke to The Associated Press)