An 11-year-old diabetic child died five days after human smugglers threw her insulin overboard in the Mediterranean Sea, according to the child charity group Save The Children.
Raghad Hasoun had a rare form of diabetes that was beginning to threaten her pancreas. She and her family decided to make the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean Sea in the hopes of getting stem cell treatment for Raghad in Germany. The family previously fled to Egypt to escape violence in Syria in 2013.
Eyas Hasoun, Raghad’s father, reported the incident to Italian authorities, stating that he and his wife prepared two backpacks filled with vials of insulin and syringes needed to administer the right dose of medication in case they got separated, the Italian paper Corriere Della Sera reported. But armed smugglers who met them on the beach in Alexandria, Egypt, ordered them to get on a small boat, took their bags, and tossed them into the sea.
Eyas dove into the water to recover the insulin vials, but the vials were rendered useless and it was impossible to measure the right dosage. Raghad fell into a diabetic coma and later died in her mother’s arms.
An imam advised Raghad’s parents to wrap the body of his daughter in a blanket, say a prayer, and told Eyas to bury her at sea, the Huffington Post reported.
Three smugglers were arrested on suspicion of migrant trafficking, but no homicide charges have yet been brought against them.
During a speech to members of his party, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi mentioned Raghad’s story. “We can discuss everything, but let’s still be human when facing the pain of someone who has the right to dignity. When a little girl dies, we can’t allow ourselves to renounce being human beings for the sake of a percentage point,” he said, according to the overseas German paper Deutsche Welle News.
Cruel incidents like these occur with some frequency on the Mediterranean Sea. In April, at least 700 migrants died when their boat capsized. Many of the victims were locked in the hold of a boat by smugglers.
More than 1,900 migrants have died so far this year fleeing North Africa and parts of the Middle East as they attempted to reach Europe. Most of those migrants die in the central Mediterranean as they cross from Libya to Italy or Malta, which are the closest points to the Libyan coast. So far this year, 35,000 asylum seekers and migrants have made it to Europe.