Selon certaines informations, Abou n’avait que 15 ans lorsqu’il est décédé lundi. Migrant de Côte d’Ivoire, il a été secouru par le navire Open Arms en septembre et a passé 12 jours en quarantaine sur le ferry Allegra au large de Palerme. Maintenant, des questions sont posées sur sa mort. Une enquête est en cours en Sicile.
Mardi 6 octobre, une veillée aux chandelles a eu lieu à Palerme, la principale ville de Sicile, en l’air d’Abou, un Ivoirien de 15 ans qui y est mort lundi à l’hôpital.
Un militant dans le domaine des droits des migrants a tweeté des photos de l’événement et a expliqué pourquoi des gens s’étaient déplacés pour le commémorer. « e soir, à Palerme, nous allons tirer Abou dans ce câlin que nous ne savions pas lui donner plus tôt. Abou, originaire de Côte d’Ivoire, avait 15 ans. Non, nous n’abandonnerons pas », a déclaré Alessandro Luparello sur son fil Twitter.
« Beaucoup d’entre nous étaient là pour vous, avec des bougies, avec des larmes et avec nos voix », a poursuivi Luparello dans un tweet plus tard dans la soirée. Luparello a dit qu’ils ne voulaient pas seulement pleurer pour Abou, mais aussi comprendre pourquoi il était mort, trouver sa famille et obtenir le reste des mineurs hors des navires de quarantaine dès que possible.
Le silence d’Abou
C’est un sentiment qui est repris par Alessandra Puccio, sociologue et tuteur volontaire (travailleur social) qui a été chargé par le Tribunal de la jeunesse (Tribunale dei Minori) à Palerme pour s’occuper du cas d’Abou. Selon le journal Secolo d’Italia, elle a déclaré qu’à son arrivée à l’hôpital de Palerme, il était déjà trop tard pour parler à Abou car il avait eu un tube inséré dans sa gorge pour l’aider à respirer.
Puccio a déclaré à Il Secolo d’Italia mardi: « Je regrette le fait que je ne pouvais pas lui parler au moment où je suis arrivé. Je veux aller au fond de cette affaire et pourquoi c’est arrivé. Ils m’ont dit que pendant des jours à bord du ferry de quarantaine Allegra il n’y avait qu’un médecin pour 600 migrants. Aujourd’hui, un autre est arrivé.
According to events reported in several Italian newspapers, including La Repubblica’s Palermo edition, Abou spent 12 days in quarantine on board the Allegra, moored off Palermo. He had been rescued by the Spanish-flagged humanitarian rescue ship Open Arms towards the beginning of September.
Rescued by Open Arms
Open Arms Italy in conjunction with the medical charity Emergency issued a press release on October 6 to give « some more details about Abou’s state of health whilst he was on board Open Arms. »
The statement says Abou was picked up on September 10 by Open Arms. According to the doctor from Emergency who was on board the Open Arms, « Abou didn’t display any particular symptoms. Apart from hunger and malnutrition, which was the case of most of those on board the boat. »
The press release continues: « On September 17, at around 9 pm, Abou developed a fever and a strong pain in his lumbar spine. He was taken into the boat’s clinic and tested for COVID-19, which it turned out he didn’t have. The medical staff re-hydrated him intravenously. They gave him paracetamol and antibiotics, thinking that the cause of his infection could be a urinary tract infection. When he left the clinic, his fever had receded. »
According to the medical staff, the marks on his body were not consistent with torture, or at least recent torture. They said that a friend of his acted as an interpreter and said that the scars on his limbs « dated from his childhood. »
Communication difficult
Because of language problems, however, Emergency said that all communication went via this friend in French. On September 18, says the press release, Abou still had a light fever but seemed to be generally better. The doctor gave him some more antibiotics and more re-hydration and also administered an ultrasound to his abdomen which didn’t find anything abnormal. They tested him once again for COVID-19, and again he was negative.
Abou was kept under observation for two hours, he didn’t show any particular signs of discomfort and asked for something to eat. At 2 pm on that day he was transferred to the Allegra ferry with his drip (for re-hydration) still attached. The Emergency doctor passed on his report on Abou’s condition and the checks carried out to the Red Cross doctor on board the Allegra.
‘Feeling better’
According to Emergency, when Abou transferred to the Allegra « he seemed to be feeling better. He walked on to the transfer rib without assistance and communicated with staff and the other young boys on board. »
The details from the Emergency Press release stop after that and Italian newspapers take up the next stage in an attempt to reconstruct what happened to Abou.
As Emergency stated, Abou was transferred on to the Allegra on September 18. He was transferred off on September 30 after being visited by two doctors on September 28 and 29. The day after being transferred to hospital, Abou fell into a coma. Two days after he was transferred to a second hospital in Palermo, due to lack of space in the first, he died.
‘Signs of torture’?
According to La Repubblica, Abou was suffering from malnutrition and had « lots of signs of torture on his body. » « The doctor only realized this on September 28, » his tutor Puccio said, « but by then it was too late. »
According to Puccio, « Psychologists and mediators tried to communicate with him before the medical intervention but he refused to talk. »
« Abou’s story is extremely sad, » said Rosario Lio, the coordinator of the voluntary tutors for unaccompanied minors in the Palermo area, to Repubblica. The tutors are there to try and help unaccompanied migrant children find their way to a study program or work and to make sure that they have a home and can navigate the bureaucracy.
Sadly, as the Repubblica journalist Salvo Palazzolo points out, « Abou died before anyone could find out what his dreams were, let alone before he was given the chance to realize them. No one even ever understood why he had decided to remain silent. »
‘Borders kill’
The Emergency press release concludes by saying their organization and Open Arms are « hugely pained by Abou’s death and we would like to find out the reasons why. The people we rescue tend to display various health problems, or have suffered abuse or violence, and then often wait for days at sea. »
Emergency reiterates the fact that « it is important to be given a safe port as soon as possible and to spend the least time possible in quarantine in structures which are adequate for the purpose and where their rights are respected. »
Other activists at Abou’s vigil in Palermo held up signs which said « borders kill.
Investigation underway
Raffaella Cosentino, a former human rights reporter and now a reporter with the Italian national broadcaster Rai in Sicily, said on Twitter that even though Abou had « survived Libya and the sea, the infinite wait reserved exclusively for migrants » had eventually killed him.
Her report for Rai on Wednesday was posted on Facebook.
Cosentino added that the prosecutors in Palermo were now investigating his death and that an autopsy was expected to be conducted on Wednesday on Abou’s body.
Sources: https://www.infomigrants.net/