Syrian refugee desperate to find niece after family dies in boat disaster

A Syrian refugee in Ontario, who has been desperately searching for her five-year-old niece since she was on a boat that capsized off the coast of Libya, is feeling overjoyed by news that the little girl may be with a Palestinian couple who also survived the wreck.

Noor Al Jawabreh, who arrived in Kitchener in March as a government-sponsored refugee, says ever since a refugee boat disaster claimed her brother's life in 2014, she's been praying to find her niece safe.

The mystery of what happened to Mira Akram Al Jawabreh has haunted her family for 18 months — and on Wednesday, there was a development f-rom Italy.

A family member recognized her niece, Mira, on a news website after the boat she was on sank. (Zaman Alwsl)

According to Italian journalist Chiara Cazzaniga, who works for the Italian public broadcaster Ria 3, Italian police in Syracuse said the little girl went with a Palestinian couple who registered the girl under the name Maria. There is no word on whe-re the couple and the girl might be.

"They spend two or three or four days and then they take trains and they go away and land in Germany or in Norway whe-re they usually have relatives. Actually, we don't know whe-re she is right now," said Cazzaniga.

Family was fleeing civil war

Mira was 3½ years old when her family attempted to cross f-rom Libya to Italy in an overcrowded boat carrying hundreds of refugees.

The family, f-rom Daraa, Syria, was fleeing that country's violent civil war.

"Her dad took the risk and travelled with his family to look for a better future for them. He left his country and was saying, 'I want to secure a better future for my children, nothing else,'" said Al Jawabreh.

Mira with her family. It is believed all the other members of her immediate family drowned. (Submitted)

The risky crossing came at a terrible cost.

Initial reports said Mira drowned

According to the Italian Coast Guard, the ship the family was on began taking on water and eventually capsized off the Libyan coast on Aug. 24, 2014.

When Syrian media learned members of the Al Jawabreh family were on the boat, there were numerous stories because the name is recognized in Syria — Mira's uncle was the first person killed in the earliest days of the Syrian revolution.

Reports f-rom Syrian television initially said Mira's entire family had drowned, including father Akram Qutiesh Jawabreh, mother Sarah Radwan Hamadi, and their four children — Yousef, Mahmoud, Maria and Mira.

Mira may have survived

But a few days after the sinking, relatives recognized Mira's face among photographs of survivors posted on a Syrian news website.

Those pictures appear to have been taken by Italian police in the Sicilian port of Augusta on Aug. 26, 2014.

Initial reports after the boat disaster stated that Mira died along with other members of her family. (Submitted)

Mohamed Maselmeh, a cousin who lives in Halifax, said he cried when he realized Mira could be alive.

"I don't know if she knows her name at that point, or if she still speaks her language, or if she still remembers her family, or anything like that," he said.

"She is with us on this planet and we can't get to her. So it's just a feeling of hopelessness, and not being able to do anything."

Possible compassionate motives

Italian officials in Syracuse said an orphaned child being taken in by another family sometimes happens after boat sinkings.

"It happens because maybe the parents of a child die in the sea and there are some people who took these children because they don't want to leave them alone here in Italy," Cazzaniga said.

"They think they could have better lives with them."

Al Jawabreh cried when she heard her niece may be with a Palestinian couple. She said she's overjoyed because there's still a chance her niece is alive and being cared for. She still hopes Mira will be found and brought to Canada.

Al Jawabreh has renewed a request with the Canadian Red Cross to locate Mira through the Family Links Program.

​'I don't sleep at night'

CBC News was able to reach Adla Hussein Alyosef, who is Mira's grandmother on her father's side, in a refugee camp in Jordan.

"I don't sleep at night, I just cry all the night long. Even my teeth, my teeth are aching all the time when I think about her. I never stop thinking about Mira," she said through a translator.​

The family says they have been in touch with a Syrian community leader in Sicily and a lawyer with the Red Cross, who both indicated that Mira is alive and is on file with local authorities.

Prominent Syrians in Germany and Norway had been asked to search for Mira, but they, too, had made no progress.

CBC News contacted the Italian Red Cross, which declined to comment on the case for privacy reasons.

But a spokesperson in Italy said the Red Cross has already received a tracing request for Mira, though it was "extremely imprecise."

Mira's surviving family says a Syrian community leader in Sicily and a lawyer with the Red Cross both indicated that she is alive and is on file with local authorities. (Submitted)

Concern for Mira's well-being

In the meantime, Al Jawabreh says she's worried for her niece's mental health.

"I mean her dad and mom, and when they drowned in the sea — how she saw them and how she saw all that."

Al Jawabreh wants to bring Mira to Canada to start a new life with her family.

"I won't possibly let her live with strangers. I want to raise her up and let her study just like my children," she said.

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