Migranti, bambina da sola a Lampedusa

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“People are abused because they are too young and they’ve got no voice. You know when you’re lonely and you’ve got nobody to talk to and nobody seems to care about your situation, or even ask what you’re going through. It’s whereby people don’t pay attention to the street children, to their needs. “ Aliysha* and her twin sister left home in Zimbabwe to get away from a physically abusive step-father who also kept them from going to school. They ran away to a nearby town, but had to eat food from bins and sleep in bushes. She spent six months working for a woman who then refused to pay her. Her sister eventually left for South Africa to find work and they lost contact. In 2008 Aliysha decided to try to reunite with her sister in South Africa. She was 17. On the way she was sexually assaulted by knifepoint by a man who offered her help with transportation. She eventually made it to Cape Town, but encountered xenophobia there. Aliysha says: “I know a Zimbabwean there whose house was burnt down because they did not want him here. People call us cockroaches. It is a dangerous place to be a child alone.” Aliysha eventually found help at a Save the Children supported children’s centre in Johannesburg. She’s thankful for the care and attention she has received at the centre and says it has helped to heal her. She is now documented and has a job at a local charity shop. She also supports other children at the centre.

Una bambina di 10 anni circa è arrivata da sola a Lampedusa su una barca.

A soccorrere il barchino partito da Sfax, in Tunisia, il giorno dell’Immacolata sono stati gli operatori della Ong Trotamar III che hanno sbarcato la bambina, all’alba, al molo commerciale dell’isola.

La piccola migrante, da quello che i soccorritori sono riusciti a capire, è originaria di Sierra Leone. Non è chiaro al momento perché fosse sola sul barchino intercettato.

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