 | | Above: Pastor Habtom |
"We lost many brothers to the sea."
-An Eritrean refugee pastor The Eritrean government confiscated his family's hotel business and imprisoned him 3 times. Seeing no other option, Habtom fled to Sudan by foot. Capture would result in his imprisonment and possibly death. From Sudan, he bought his way onto a smuggler's small pickup truck with 39 other desperate people. In his words: "We were packed into the truck like tomatoes." With precious little food and water, they spent 2 weeks crossing the Sahara. The stakes were high. "While on our journey, we saw a body in the desert." Habtom made it to Libya alive. Libyan authorities raided a gathering of Eritrean believers and locked them all up in an overcrowded jail in Tripoli (population 500-1000). Time in prison included beatings and torture. "We had no light at night. The overcrowding and filth made sleep impossible. Most of us were waiting to be deported." A group of West Africans led a prayer meeting.
"We spent most of our time praying and teaching. We shared the 4-5 Bibles we had. The fellowship helped me forget my troubles."
He suffered more trials after his release, but was finally able to buy his way onto a 25' smuggler's boat along with 24 other passengers. The average fare is over $1,500.
"Many boats don't have GPS or even a compass." Thankfully, his boat had a GPS and even a satellite phone. After 6 hours in the Mediterranean Sea, they ran out of fuel. The water became rough. Fellow passengers refused to sit down and dangerously rocked the boat-nearly capsizing it. The Christians began praying for protection. A large Russian vessel rescued them on their fourth day at sea. Sadly, the ship's waves swamped the refugee boat. Few knew how to swim. At least one was sucked into the powerful prop of the ship. Habtom remembers... "25 set out. 22 were rescued. We could see blood in the water. The bodies were never found. It was traumatizing."
Upon his arrival in Malta, Habtom and the others were placed into a detention facility. He was released after 12 months.
"It was worse than prison. We had no access to sunlight or visitors at that time. We all felt cut off and locked up."
Once again, it was the refugee initiated fellowship in detention that kept hope alive.
"The first place we saw in Malta was detention. We organized ourselves. We comforted each other."
Habtom is among the 5,000 or so refugees in Malta today, where he pastors an Eritrean fellowship. Although they have survived the desert and the sea, their challenges are not over. It is their faith in Jesus and their fellowship together that continues to sustain them.
Pastor Habtom is among those with whom we are partnering in Malta as we establish a long-term ministry to assist asylum-seekers on the island. *The UNHCR estimates that over 1,500 asylum seekers died attempting to cross the sea from Africa to Europe in 2011. | 
