The horrific ordeal faced by 13 people, when a fellow migrant died while trying to retrieve an empty fuel container in Maltese waters, is being told in a new comic by one of the world’s largest humanitarian organisations.

Last June, a rescue ship chartered by Médecins Sans Frontières rescued 13 people, more than 38 hours after the Maltese authorities received a first distress alert from Alarm Phone.

During that time, a 21-year-old Syrian man went overboard and is believed to have died.

“I hope that what happened to us never happens to anyone else. Regardless of where we are, we are human, and these were moments of death. No one can, in such moments, say ‘I want refugees, or I don’t want refugees’ and let them die,” a 27-year-old survivor said after the ordeal.

“What the Maltese did is awful. You [Malta] had the capacity to rescue us and bring us with you, but you did not. You saw a boat in the condition of ours and you gave us fuel? We were in European waters and a young man had died. I will never forget,” the man added.

The survivors on the boat, which had left Libya, recount running out of water, food and fuel. They thought of keeping the empty containers as buoys in case of a shipwreck. One container fell overboard and a young man jumped in to retrieve it, only to realise it had lost its cap.

The waves prevented him from getting back to the boat as fellow passengers held out a paddle for him to grab onto. That too fell into the sea and they threw another empty container at him.

A snippet from the comic produced by Médecins Sans Frontières.

Some frantically tried to steer the boat towards him with their own hands and other paddles, while others tried collecting any remaining drops of fuel from the empty containers to start the engine.

But it was all in vain: the young man drifted away and disappeared. “We were all shocked… I cried all the way. Sometimes I feel guilty and I ask God if I could have been able to help him, what could I have done more,” a 44-year-old survivor recalled.

According to MSF, the group of migrants contacted Alarm Phone on June 22 after 2pm UTC, who in turn alerted the Maltese and Italian authorities. The youth went missing on June 23 just before 11am.

Later that day, a merchant ship approached the boat, handed out water and food but did not allow the occupants aboard, as it waited for instructions from the Maltese authorities. 

An AFM patrol boat eventually provided fuel and instructed them to resume their journey to Italy. The AFM provided fuel again but the 13 survivors were finally rescued by MSF and taken to Italy.

The comic, called Left to Drown, is to be released in the coming days. It is based on records and first-hand testimonies of the survivors, with MSF hoping to raise awareness among the public to the deadly Central Mediterranean routes.