Love, determination and risking all to cross the Mediterranean

On the day of her rescue, Sadia, centre, and her children play with her phone on the deck of the Geo Barents. There is no mobile signal or internet on board for survivors, so they are unable to make phone calls [Lexie Harrison-Cripps/Al Jazeera]

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It was dark when Sadia*, 25, climbed from the Libyan beach into the little grey inflatable dinghy, together with her three small children, one night in April 2022. As the first to board, they sat at the bow, while the others squeezed in around them. Men straddled the dinghy’s sides, each with one leg dangling in the water.