Among the 27 dead in a shipwreck on November 24 while trying to reach England, a majority of migrants were from Iraqi Kurdistan. Their families were awaiting their remains this Sunday in order to organize their funeral.
Their names are Muhamad, Rezhwan, Kazhall, Hadia, Mubin, Rezgar… They are among the victims of a shipwreck in the English Channel in November which left 27 dead. The bodies of these sixteen people were repatriated this Sunday before dawn in Iraqi Kurdistan, where families were waiting for them to organize a funeral.
Originally scheduled for Friday, the repatriation has been postponed twice. The plane finally arrived around midnight French time at the airport in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous region in northern Iraq. The remains were then transported to their towns of origin in Kurdistan, Darbandikhan, Ranya but also to Soran or Qadrawa.
27 people trying to reach England had perished in the sinking of November 24, the deadliest in the Channel, crisscrossed daily by migrants trying to reach the English coasts aboard fragile boats.
Of the bodies found, 26 were identified in France: 17 men and 7 women aged 19 to 46, a 16-year-old teenager and a 7-year-old child. In addition to the sixteen Kurds from Iraq, there is also a Kurd from Iran, three Ethiopians, a Somali, four Afghans and an Egyptian. Only two men had been rescued, an Iraqi Kurd and a Sudanese according to the French Interior Ministry. According to the testimony of one of them, 33 people were on board when the smugglers counted them.
Questions arise about the calls that migrants would have made to the French and English authorities, when their makeshift boat began to sink, according to the testimony of a survivor. The Manche maritime prefecture, for its part, ruled out that the appeal of migrants in difficulty was not dealt with. The association for aid to exiles Utopia 56 nevertheless announced last Monday that it had lodged a complaint for “manslaughter” and “Failure to provide assistance” against the maritime prefect of La Manche, Philippe Dutrieux, and two French and British relief officials.