In 1999, the Kapllani family lost all trace of their daughter, Olimbi Kapllani.
She left for Italy by boat, along with a son. A few days later, the family was faced with tragic news: the boat had sunk.
Only the boy's body was found from the incident, which was brought to the port of Vlora. The coffin was sealed by the authorities and never opened, and since that day, Olimbi Kapllani's fate remains unknown.
Years passed, but the mystery only deepened. The family has often received scattered and unconfirmed information, someone says they saw him in Berat, another claims to have seen him in Italy, in the company of a foreign person, while another testimony places him in Athens. No trace has been verified, but hope remains alive.
Today, Olimbis' sister-in-law is asking for help again, for the sake of her husband, Olimbis' brother, who after more than 25 years is still looking for his sister.
According to the family's claims, before her departure, Olimbis' life was not easy. Family members say that initially her mother had engaged her to someone, then the engagement broke off, and relations at home became severely strained.
According to their claims, in 1999, Olimbia was first taken out onto the street and then sold by her mother for 30 thousand lek.
Relatives are seeking information that could help close this open wound that has been open for almost three decades.
"She previously engaged her to a boy in Tirana, separated her and put her out on the street and sold her. She got engaged at the age of 14-15 against her will, because her mother decided. Olimbia was the youngest of all the children. And she did the same thing with her other sister. Her mother broke off the engagement. Her father-in-law lives, Oimbia's father says that I couldn't take her home because she was with her stepfather and didn't want her to take a child home. She took the boy to Vlora, they were engaged there and lived in a rented house, she stayed engaged for about a year. And her mother encouraged her to break up. From what I've been told, because I wasn't a bride yet at the time, in the family, as they've told me, there was a group of traffickers, with this boy.. Her mother sold him for 30 thousand old lek for a sack of flour," she said.
She also recounted shocking moments of that event on December 30-31, 1999, when they were heading towards Italy on a dinghy.
"He set off towards Italy on a raft, there were two rafts that were smuggling and they found out on January 2, 2000 when it was reported that two rafts had drowned in Otranto. A policeman told the father-in-law, "May your children live because they drowned." And after 1-2 days, the boy's body was found, the boy's coffin was not opened. There could have been about 15 people on one raft and 15 on the other... The policeman sent the father-in-law away with these words, "May your children live because the others drowned." The mother-in-law had gone and the boy's family had chased her away," the sister-in-law recounts.
