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[Man] Quinze Minutes: the editors' reporting magazine

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[Woman] After the Lampedusa shipwreck,

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we carry on our inquiry into the <i>causes</i> of recent migrants' boats shipwrecks.

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Quinze Minutes magazine crossed the Mediterranean

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to meet NGOs, academics and families who inquire

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into the dramatic circumstances of Europe-bound migration.

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"Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean: who is guilty?"

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a reportage in Tunis by Alexandre Habay, edited by Sylvain Michel.

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[coast guard] Pronto? A che distanza siete da Lampedusa?[br](Hello, how far are you from Lampedusa)

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[shipwrecked man] [unclear - in Arabic?][br][coast gard] Dove siete? (Where are you?)

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[shipwrecked man] [unclear - in Arabic?][br][coast gard] Dove siete? (Where are you?)

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[shipwrecked man] [unclear - in Arabic?][br][coast gard] Pronto? (Hello)

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[Alexandre Habay (?)] What we heard is a Mayday call made via cell phone

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by someone on the boat that got shipwrecked in front of Lampedusa

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on September 6, 2012.

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It's a Mayday call. It's really, really tragic to hear that.

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The caller's hopelessness perfectly comes through

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and unfortunately, this call is also rather unclear, actually.

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This is certainly one of the reasons why it was difficult for the Italian coast guards

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to immediately identify the position of the boat after this call,

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and this may have been a cause of the very shipwreck

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and of over 70 people's disappearance.

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This incident actually remains a mystery:

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over 50 people were rescued, about ten bodies were found

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but the other people were never found

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and thus it is not known whether they in fact survived

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or if the boat sank,

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as neither the wreck nor the other bodies were found.

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GSM coverage usually starts a few kilometers from coasts.

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So we know that this boat was very, very near Lampione

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when this Mayday call was made - and there were several such calls

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and several calls to passengers' families too.

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[music]

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[Charles Heller] So, my name is Charles Heller.

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I'm a reseracher at London University and I am presently here

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to support families and associations

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in reconstructing various sea incidents

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in order to understand what actually happened to all these missing or dead people:

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in fact, these families whom we shall meet are searching for the truth.

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[Imed Soltani] Well, I'm Imed Soltani.

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I've just founded this association called "La terre pour tous" (Earth for all).

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I'm Tunisian, an Arab

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and I have to work more than you

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because if your European children want to go to Tunisia or Algeria

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they can come without hassle.

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But as to us, if someone wants to go to the other side, they must die at sea.

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And there's this name, I can tell you this name

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There's the name of Mohamed El Himi, this one

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There's Husein ben Ahmed el Himi, there's Nebil el Gazueli, there's Ali ben Attar ben Bouli,

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There's Sadr ben Bouli,

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all these names, this Kerim ben Ourdi Mbarki,

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this one you see a third (check) -- this one is the land of Lampedusa.

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[Habay] So actually, you've enlarged pictures from Italian TV news

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and you try to identify these young boat people?

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[Soltani] Yes. Families have recognized these children.

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[Habay] Thus these young people, visibly, survived`

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Where are they now? Do you know where they are?

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Are they in touch with their families? Did it end w--

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[Soltani] No, nobody, no contact with families.

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People who get into Lampedusa don't give their real name.

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They tell other names.

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Some people don't even want to give their fingerprints.

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[children's voices]

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[Habay] What are we looking at?

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[Man] This one is my brother, this one.

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[Habay] What's his name[br][Man] M'hamed Haboubi - Mohamed Haboub.

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[Habay] Yet there are -- well, the pictures is not very clear -

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yet there are many -- are you sure it's him?

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[Man] Yes, my brother: he's been living with me for 22 years.

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[Habay] And where do you think your brother is, now?

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[Man] I don't know, it's the province (?) -- we are trying to find where he is.

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[Habay] Because of course, if he'd safely reached Europe,

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he would have called you; are you expecting a call from him?

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[Man] Of course, but the Italian government made no declaration about these people.

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[Heller] Clearly, any time a relative is missing,

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the family can't help but imagining what their fate might be.

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And people in Switzerland whose relatives are missing go through the same experience

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our mindset can't help but imagining the worse as well as the best scripts

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thus I think that the first thing these families request

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is to know what happened to their relatives.

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[Habay] Thus you, Charles Heller, in this research you are doing,

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funded for instance by the Swiss national research fund,

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thus by what means do you try to reconstruct what happened at sea?

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Do you have technical means, for instance, do you conduct an inquiry?

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[Heller] Nowadays, incidents leave multiple traces:

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when there are survivors, their accounts,

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many migrants phone their families.

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Then there are all kinds of other elements that can be used, like satellite images,

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which can enable us to understand which boats, which ships

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were near a given boat.

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[Habay] So why are you trying to reconstruct this context, actualy?

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In order to identify responsibilities?

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[Heller] In the last 20 years, there have been over 14'000 deaths

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at the sea boarders, only of the Mediterranean.

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And these are only documented instances, so obviously, there have been many more

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and no one answers for these deaths.

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In 2011 there was a turning point

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with NATO's military intervention in Libya,

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and with the shared feeling of many associations, who said:

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"But there has been a record number of deaths this year in central Mediterranea

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whereas over 40 NATO ships are deployed in front of Libyan coasts,

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precisely in the area where these deaths happened."

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And in this context, we made an inquiry about a ship that left Tripoli

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on March 27, 2011

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and after barely 24 hours, was in distress

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with no more fuel.

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It drifted for 14 days in the area monitored by NATO

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which, again, was probably, at that time,

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the most monitored sea area in the world.

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Italian and Maltese authorities, NATO, all new about their distress.

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In spite of the fact that there had been <i>two</i> visits by an helicopter marked "army",

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and when half the people on board were already dead,

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passengers drifted near a big army ship

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whose crew just photographed them before abandoning them to their fate.

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In the end, only 9 out of the 72 passengers survived.

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The report we wrote about this tragedy, this shipwreck

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was the basis for a claim filed against the various states involved in the Libya operation.

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This is the first attempt to identify who is directly answerable for these deaths

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beyond, again the deep political responsibility

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of the European Union and of the Southern Mediterranean sates.

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And we also try to make inquiries about other shipwrecks that happened.

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We are closely following incidents that happened in Lampedusa in recent days.

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[Voices in Arabic]

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[Habay or Heller?] So we are in Gebel Achmad, a very lower class neighborhood of Tunis

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from which about twenty boys left on the boat

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whose Mayday call we heard.

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We're going to meet families who are still wondering what happened on that day.

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[Voices in Arabic]

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[Bensmida] My name is Mohamed Bensmida.

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I am the father of Ahmed Bensmida who was shipwrecked on September 6, 2012

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[words in arabic] 17 year old.

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[Interpreter] His son is 17 year old and he wanted to do as his friends from this neighborhood,

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so, in order to better and change his life,

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he suddenly left.

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[Bensmida ?] The agent...[br][Habay?] 136 people on board?

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[Bensmida ?] Yes. That's when they arrived, 80 <i>amesh</i>, missing.

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[Habay] What happened? Does one know?

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[Bensmida] They say that they are, <i>maneh</i>, that the boat got broken, but [continues in Arabic]

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[Interpreter] The script becomes unclear after that.

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[Interpreter + Bensmida in Arabic] They are not convinced of what really happened.

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His son's friends say that they saw his son swimming, in front of them.

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And as night fell, they didn't see him afterwards.

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It's ironic that a pregnant woman can reach the coast swimming

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and that others haven't - well, that they died.

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[Bensmida ?] It isn't true. I'd like to have more explanations.

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[Habay] If he'd managed to reach Italy, you would have heard from him,

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or was he registered by authorities?

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[Interpreter + Bensmida in Arabic] He says they live in a delusion

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because they've heard that some people reached the shore,

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then some are in prison.

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What's sickening is the delusion and vagueness.

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[Bensmida] They made a Mayday call, Italia Ouini (?) made this Mayday call.

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[Interpreter] The Italian and Tunisian governments are involved in this shipwreck

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because there was a Mayday call, he said,

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and normally, they must respond, and there was no response.

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[Zwaoui] [speaks in Arabic]

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[Interpreter] So she says her name is Samia Zwaoui (?).

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Her son is Bachlis Kilini (?)

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and he has been missing since September 6, 2012.

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[Interpreter + Zwaoui in Arabic] She had --

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out of 56 survivors who said that the hull sank.

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And her son's friend got a message saying

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that he saw her (his?) children being taken away by Italian police in Palermo, in the port. <i>athlewa?</i> (check)

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[Habay] OK. So you think he is still alive?

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[Zwaoui] [speaks in Arabic]

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[Interpreter] She has a feeling that her son is alive.

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[Zwaoui and the interpreter speak in Arabic]

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[Interpreter] She got a phone call from a double zero plus 44 number,

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and someone said "Hello" several times[br][Habay[ That's England.

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[Interpreter] I don't know what country code +44 is, but anyway, it's someone who --

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she felt it was her son because it was 5 months and half after the shipwreck

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and it was just to make sure whether it was actually her voice, his mother's voice, or not.

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She tried to ring back but she got a busy tone.

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[Zwaoui] [in Arabic]

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[Interpreter] She even tried to call back yesterday.[br][Zwaoui] [speaks in Arabic]

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[Heller or Habay?] So, we've just heard these accounts.

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It's rather difficult to know what to think of them.

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Maybe some families are still in denial.

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Anyway, as often happens when people go missing,

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these families hang on to the slightest hope.these families hang on to the slightest hope.

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[Prayer call; bus engine]

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[Synthetic voice] Next stop, Vidy (?)

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[Habay] So now, we are back in Switzerland, at Mont sur Lausanne,

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and we are going towards the Civil Protection shelter where some asylum requesters are staying.

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A group of young people are waiting there,

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and among them, there is a Tunisian man with whom I have an appointment,

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and we'll talk with him about these Mediterranean crossings.

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[2 voices, in English and Arabic ?]

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[Interpreter ?] They came, 300 people in a boat.

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[Man speaks Arabic][br][Interpreter] They came from Zarzis

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a town on the Mediterranean shore. They paid 10'000 Euros to come here.

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[Interpreter +man in Arabic] He came here after the 2011 revolution.

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They denied his asylum request in Italy.

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[Habay] And in Switzerland?

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[Interpreter + man in Arabic] His asylum request was denied.

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He must leave Switzerland by October 31.

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[Habay] Do you think all that was worth it?

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Taking these risks, paying 10'000 Euros, risking to die at sea?

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Was it worth it to do that? Do you regret--

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[Interpreter + man in Arabic] He regretted it[br][Habay] Why?

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[Interpreter + man in Arabic] He is disappointed.

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He came here looking for another, better, life, and he found something worse: he is in a bunker.

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[Arabic song]

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[Interpreter] "I've remained all alone in my exile, and I suffer, and I'm unlucky."

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These are the lyrics of this song.[br][Arabic song]

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[15 Minutes jingle]

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[Journalist] This reportage can be seen again at any time on www.rtsinfo.ch