The rescued Moroccan castaway attached to a drum: "After a while, the screams stopped being heard"

Hassan Syaf on December 5 in the Gardens of the Hotel Santa Catalina in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.Quique Curbelo

At 9:43 am on November 22, the crew member of a sailboat sailing two nautical miles (3.7 kilometers) from the Maspalomas beach (south coast of Gran Canaria) heard some screams.

It was Hassan Syaf, a Moroccan about to turn 35, a native of Agadir and an infrequent smile to hide chipped teeth.

He had set sail the previous Saturday in a small wooden boat with eight other men from the south of Sidi Ifni (Morocco).

In the early hours of the following Tuesday, the ship split open at the stern and began to sink.

The castaway was saved because he decided to swim to a fuel drum.

They found him clinging to him a few hours later.

“While swimming I would turn from time to time, but it was very dark.

Only screams could be heard.

But after a while, they stopped listening.

I was left alone with the sea”.

More information

Diary of 22 days lost in a cayuco in the Atlantic

Hassan Syaf worked as a swimming instructor at a municipal facility in his hometown.

The only son of a widowed mother, he assures that he did not care if he was busy.

"Even though he had a job, it was as if he were unemployed," he explains in Arabic at a Red Cross office in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

“The income was not enough, he was very poor.

Many of us in Morocco are, but it is not only money that we lack: there is great repression, human rights are not respected.

I felt humiliated in my own country.

I had to get out of there."

He is already safe in Gran Canaria, cared for by the humanitarian organization, which is treating him for a picture of acute stress disorder, according to Gara Barroso, a psychologist with the humanitarian care program for immigrants.

"He is constantly on the alert, is easily startled, presents apathy and anhedonia [inability to experience pleasure and loss of interest or satisfaction in almost all activities] and recurring feelings of guilt for having saved himself" .

Syaf, yes, evolves favorably, and explains that in the future he only hopes to work "in whatever and wherever."

He made the decision in February.

“Making the leap to the continent is a frequent topic of conversation there.

We all have the dream of coming to Europe to seek a better life.

Some dare, others don't, but it is something that is at street level”.

One day, an acquaintance put him in contact through Facebook with a person who was dedicated to these transfers.

They put him in a WhatsApp group, where the instructions were arriving.

"It was not easy to close the trip," he recalls.

“He gave us a lot of delays.

He was determined to collect well before the trip.

But we did not fall into the trap, because we were afraid that we would be scammed.

The network charged 4,000 euros for the journey.

Remains of the wrecked ship in which the Moroccan Hassan Syaf was traveling, which were found by Maritime Rescue that same day.

Among them, the drum that allowed him to survive.Salvamento Marítimo

The operation was launched in November.

On the 18th, one of the men he used to chat with picked him up in his car and took him to Sidi Ifni, a journey of approximately two and a half hours.

"They left me out in the open in a place near the beach, not very crowded."

Little by little, other people from other cities began to arrive, especially from Beni Mellal (center of the country).

On Saturday the 19th they set sail early in the morning in a small wooden boat with a compartment, as he recalls.

"It was in bad shape, the rudder didn't work, and they had installed an engine in the stern, from where the boat was heading."

Eight men were traveling on board, in addition to the skipper.

“I was not afraid at the time.

I was happy, actually, because I was finally going to fulfill my dream.

Syaf confesses himself to be very religious.

It was a “very hard” journey, he says.

"We did not carry provisions, and on board there was only milk, bread and water."

The boat could have taken much less time if it had headed for Lanzarote (about 200 kilometers from the starting point) or Fuerteventura (380 kilometers), but it deviated to the southwest and covered a distance of approximately 540 kilometers in a straight line in the three days it stayed afloat.

Shipwreck

The shipwreck occurred during the early hours of Tuesday.

“A leak opened up at the stern and we all panicked.

Little by little the ship was sinking from the back”.

The passage moved to the front to get away from the sea, which was inexorably closing in.

“I started to get naked to have less ballast.

It was at that moment that I saw in the distance a drum that had come loose from the ship, wrapped in a black bag”.

He started to swim in her direction.

“It cost me a lot, I think it took me a whole hour to reach it.

The sea is so big that it doesn't matter if you're an expert in swimming: if God doesn't want it, you won't survive”.

Hassan Syaf, on December 5, 2022 in the Gardens of the Hotel Santa Catalina in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.Quique Curbelo

Next to that drum there was another, who tried to tie the first one with a shirt.

It's not a good idea.

“I was about to drown because they turned around and left me trapped.

In the end, I untied them again and was left holding on to the second one.

It was this that saved his life.

There he remained praying, "in fear", almost four kilometers from the coast, floating in a sea with swells and good visibility, according to Maritime Rescue records.

At 9:43 in the morning — "I don't know how much time passed, but the sun was already up high — she saw the

a small sailboat, in the distance.

“I began to shout and make gestures so that they would see me,” he recounts.

His crewman saw him and took him on board.

“I was very ill, I felt like I was dying.

I barely remember a dog licking me, ”he recounts.

The sailboat transferred Syaf to the Pasito Blanco marina (south of the island, in the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana), from where she was transferred to the Insular Hospital.

Immediately afterwards, Maritime Rescue mobilized the

helicopter and the Salvamar

.

In addition, advisories were issued to mariners in the area.

The Canarian Government made another helicopter available to be able to carry out the refueling relays.

They worked until sunset without result.

Early the next day the patrol boat of the Civil Guard

, who worked until nightfall.

On the 24th and 25th the broadcast of radio warnings continued.

All these efforts were in vain.

No other survivors were found, only remains of the boat.

Among them, five drums that are worth a life.

Transfer falls on the Canary route

EFE

Boat arrivals in Spain have fallen by 25.6% with one month to go before the end of the year compared to 2021, to remain at 27,063 people, 9,316 fewer, after November with the lowest balance in this type of movement since the Ministry of the Interior publishes biweekly data (2017).

Last month, 1,082 people reached the Spanish coast or were rescued nearby, of which 625 correspond to the Canary Islands Route, 453 to the routes to the peninsula and the Balearic Islands, four to the maritime borders of Ceuta and none to Melilla.

In the case of the Canary Islands, since the Atlantic route was reactivated, October and November have been contributing around two thirds of all arrivals each year, because the most favorable conditions for navigation in the area coincide in those months.

The 625 people who arrived on the islands last month make up the lowest number since this route was reactivated, in 2019. That year, 517 people arrived in the Canary Islands in November by boat, which in 2020 shot up to 8,157 (the all-time high of a month on this journey) and in 2021 they stood at 3,038.

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