Story highlights
- Muhamed is one of 41 survivors out of an estimated 500 people
- He describes the panic as they were forced to transfer to another vessel
- The captain of his boat sped off, leaving survivors behind
Athens, Greece (CNN)They are images that will forever haunt Muhidin Hussein Muhamed: The boat he was about to board flipping over in seconds, trapping hundreds of its passengers inside.
Those who made it to the surface didn't know how to swim, he recalls. Many drowned, while others wearing life vests simply drifted away with the currents.
Muhamed, 32, was traveling with his six brothers. They were all lost.
"I survived. But I'm not going to forget my brothers," he tells CNN. "The survivors will not forget their families. It's not possible."
United Nations: Up to 500 migrants dead in sinking 01:49
He was one of only 41 survivors -- 37 men, three women and a 3-year-old child -- from a boat believed to be carrying as many as 500 people, many of them asylum seekers from Somalia, before it capsized in the Mediterranean.
Muhamed says his journey started on a boat that left the Libyan port of Tobruk on April 12 just before sunrise. He remembers the captain making a headcount: 200 people on board a 15-meter boat.
They were headed for Italy, but some 15 hours into the journey, the captain announced that the boat wasn't going to make it. He says their boat pulled up alongside a larger vessel overloaded with hundreds of people.
Panic
They threw ropes over to the larger boat, he says, and started to transfer passengers one by one. At first, it was an orderly process. But as night fell, people began to rush forward, fearful of losing a space on board.
The seas became rougher and the waves higher. They waited on the smaller boat with a group of women, afraid to move in the chaos.
"I told them 'Wait here. Let us wait. They are all shouting and in a hurry. It's dangerous.'"
He remembers the captain shouting at the crowds to stop rushing and balance the bigger boat. Then it flipped over.
"I saw it with my eyes," he says, using his hands to illustrate the capsized hull of the boat. "I'm watching the people. They can't swim. Watching them go up and down in the water."
The bigger boat was already overcrowded with about 500 people, including some from Muhamed's smaller vessel.
Lesbos: A Greek cemetery for the migrant dead. 02:24
'Muhidin, help me!'
Muhamed recalls seeing one of his brothers in the water.
"He shouted 'Muhidin, help me!' But I did not have the power to help him. I am only looking."
Muhamed says about 10 people managed to swim back to his boat. He believes there could have been more survivors, including his own brothers, but the boat captain restarted the engine and left them behind.
"I asked the captain 'Why you leave my brother there?' He said 'shut up' and he hit me. I want to kill him. But I can't kill him because who will drive us to Italy then?"
A short while later, Muhamed says, another empty boat arrived. The captain and the crew jumped aboard. They punched in a number on a satellite phone and then threw it to the remaining survivors.
"Call for help," was the last thing Muhamed remembers the captain saying before he sped away.
Adrift at sea
They drifted for three days at sea before they were rescued. Several ships passed them by, Muhamed says, before a commercial vessel from the Philippines responded to their distress call.
A year in the life of migrants 01:47
"Without food and water we become so dry -- our skins, eyes - all of us. We were just hoping we were going to die. We waited for the minute the boat goes down."
The survivors were taken to Kalamata, Greece, and are now under the care of the UNHCR in a hotel in Athens.
The first thing Muhamed did was borrow five euros to call his wife and five children in Somalia. They cried when they heard his voice.
He then sent a text message to his mother informing her that his brothers had died.
Muhamed says he will apply for asylum in Greece and try to build a new life here. For now, he lives with the other survivors.
"We are like brothers now because we survived together. 41 out of 500," he says.
What about the Libyan captain who left him at sea?
"If I saw this man now, I would not wait to kill him," he says. "He killed us. He knew this boat could not carry all these people. I wish I could see him again with my own eyes."
Photos: 24 hours of Europe's migration crisis
Migrants wear identification bracelets aboard a Norwegian ship during a search-and-rescue mission off the Libyan coast on Tuesday, September 1. Europe is in the midst of a migration crisis. Desperate men and women, often with children in tow, are fleeing wars and poverty to find a better life on the continent. But their voyages, both on land and on sea, can be dangerous and sometimes deadly.
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Photos: 24 hours of Europe's migration crisis
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The body of a drowned migrant remains on a shore in Zuwara, Libya. In the last week, two boats carrying hundreds of people capsized near Zuwara, killing at least 84, officials said.
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Photos: 24 hours of Europe's migration crisis
A migrant shouts at Macedonian police officers while trying to cross Greece's northern border into Macedonia. About 1,500 migrants were waiting to cross the border.
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A young girl from Iraq waits for registration with her family outside the main station in Munich, Germany. Hundreds of migrants are arriving every day.
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Migrants sit outside the main station in Munich as they wait for their chance to register.
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A group of refugees continues its journey through Hungary after crossing the Serbian border.
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Syrian refugees walk across railways tracks next to the Serbian town of Horgos to cross the border and enter Hungary.
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Migrants sit in a police bus in Pocking, Germany, after making their way to the country from Austria.
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Migrants from Afghanistan drink tea at a Paris school where they found shelter.
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A migrant sleeps on a sidewalk in Berlin near the reception center for refugees and asylum seekers.
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Migrants walk on a rocky beach in Ventimiglia, Italy, where they set up camp near the French border.
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Refugee children sleep near a railway station in Budapest, Hungary.
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