After 12 hours the skipper was able to contact the Red Cross in Sicily. They sent a ship that took us to Palermo, where we got food, clothes and medicine. I’d already decided to head for Sweden and took the train to Milan with some friends I’d met on the crossing.
In Milan there are “taxis” that can take you anywhere in Europe. The drivers wait at the train station and I guess there are some sort of organized crime in the background, but what can you do? We were four in the car plus the driver, who took us to Copenhagen.
Via Malmö and Gothenburg I arrived at the refugee camp in Varberg in November 2014. I learned Swedish, the Red Cross kept us occupied – we played a lot of football, and Martin Bekken from BEWI often came to visit. He needed someone who could help customers with CAD and blueprints and I gladly volunteered.
