RANYA, Iraq — "If I don't
call you back, it's because I will be in England," Shakar Ali said in his
last message to his family as the attempted to cross the Channel from France to
Britain.
اضافة اعلان
But the inflatable boat he took along with
around 30 other irregular migrants would never reach British shores.
Nearly a month after at least 27 of those
migrants drowned, families of 16 of them finally got some closure on Sunday as
their bodies arrived in
Iraqi Kurdistan.
The remains arrived before dawn at the
airport in the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital
Erbil, where dozens of men, women
and children had gathered.
Among the mourners, some embraced and
black-clad women wept while others showed pictures of their lost kin.
Clutching his cane to his chest, an elderly
man with a white beard showed a photo on his phone of his son Afrasia, who was
just 24 years old.
The November 24 tragedy has been described
by the International Organization for Migration as the largest single loss of
life in the English Channel since the
UN agency started recording data in
2014.
The plain wooden coffins were placed in ambulances
that transported them to their hometowns of Darbandikhan, Qadrawa, Ranya, and
Soran.
A woman sobbed as she pressed her face up
against a window pane. Close by, two teenagers appeared similarly shaken. One
of them rested his head against a casket, bidding his final farewell.
'Each time he failed'
In the center of Ranya, hundreds gathered in
a mosque to honor the three victims from the Kurdish town.
The bodies were washed in the traditional
Muslim way. The crowd filled a large prayer hall, and in the heavy silence, the
murmurs of funerary prayers could be heard.
Shakar Ali, 30, left his home two months
ago, making the long trip via Turkey, Greece, then Italy, before his
Mediterranean journey ended in France.
"He attempted the crossing to Britain
seven times," his older brother Shamal said. "Each time, he
failed."
Three years earlier, Shakar, who had a
degree in petroleum geology, was searching for a job.
"He was unemployed until his
departure," his brother, a teacher, continued.
He blamed the recent tragedy on the lack of
job opportunities, as well as the policies of the authorities in the autonomous
Kurdistan region.
"Because of this, hundreds of families
have lost a child."
At the cemetery in Ranya, the young man's
shrouded body was lifted on the shoulders of the men of the family.
A crowd gathered as the body was lowered
into the grave.
The youngest of the family, Ramyar, recalled
his last conversation with his brother.
"He told us 'We have started the
crossing. If I call you, it means the coast guard has arrested us'," the
20-year-old recounted.
"'If I don't call you back, it's
because I will have arrived in England'," he continued.
'Bride of the sea'
Initially set to arrive on Friday, the
repatriation of the 16 Iraqi Kurdish victims was postponed twice.
Among the 26 bodies identified in France
were 17 men and seven women aged between 19 and 46, as well as a 16-year-old
and a seven-year-old child.
In addition to the 16 Iraqi Kurds, the
victims also included an Iranian Kurd, a Somalian, four Afghans, and an
Egyptian.
Only two survivors were found, an Iraqi Kurd
and a Sudanese national.
French investigators are still trying to
establish a clearer picture of what happened during the disaster.
They have been investigating reports that
the passengers had telephoned both French and British emergency services,
appealing for help when the vessel began sinking.
At the
airport in Erbil, the family of young
Baran hung a banner on the back of a moving ambulance that carried her body
back to her hometown of Soran.
On the banner alongside a smiling picture of
the young woman it said "Bride of the sea".
Maryam Nuri Hama Amin — known as
"Baran" to her family, a name meaning "rain" in Kurdish —
was only in her 20s when she set off on the trip.
She was one of the first Kurdish victims to
be identified from the disaster.
She was planning on joining her fiancé, who
was already in Britain, in the hope of seeking a "better life" there,
her father had told AFP shortly after the tragedy.
While the tragedy was the worst recorded in
the Channel, at least 30 people have died this week alone in three shipwrecks
off the coasts of
Greek islands.
Among the survivors were Syrians, Egyptians,
and Iraqis.
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