Lampedusa, Italy - "No mama, no papa. All alone."
Eleven-year-old Tanjin knows just enough English to sum up his situation in heart-wrenching fashion.
But the Eritrean boy kicking a dirty white football around with other asylum seekers on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa is anything but miserable.
In fact, he rarely stops smiling and laughing.
Whatever horrors lie behind him, Tanjin's future - and perhaps that of the family he left behind in east Africa - looks brighter now he has made it to European soil.
Tanjin is one of nearly 2,000 people to have landed on Italy's southernmost outpost since the weekend after being rescued from people smuggling boats that never had much chance of making it across the Mediterranean.
A combination of his young age and the likelihood that he would soon face compulsory conscription if returned to Eritrea mean he has a good chance of being granted leave to remain in Europe and completing his education here.
His next port of call will be a reception centre on the Italian mainland that specialises in coping with minors who reach the country unaccompanied.
AFP
