The November 24 incident, in which 27 people died, has been described as the worst on record involving people trying to cross the passage to Britain from France
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The bodies of 16 Iraqi Kurdish people who drowned last month as they attempted to cross the English Channel have been repatriated to northern Iraq.
The November 24 incident, in which 27 people died, has been described as the worst on record involving people trying to cross the perilous passage to Britain from France.
The boat capsized off the coast of northern France, sparking a political crisis, with Britain and France accusing each other of not doing enough to deter people from crossing the Channel.
Dozens of mourners waited at the semi-autonomous Kurdish region’s international airport in Irbil on Sunday, where the plane carrying the bodies arrived. Relatives grieved as the caskets were transported by ambulance to their hometowns for burial.
The repatriations came amid a new tragedy involving people from the Middle East searching for new lives in Europe. Libya’s Red Crescent said on Sunday that at least 27 bodies of Europe-bound migrants, including a baby and two women, had washed ashore in the west of the country.
A disproportionate number of people from the Middle East attempting to reach Europe lately have been from Iraq’s Kurdish region.
Although northern Iraq is more prosperous than the rest of the conflict-scarred country, growing unemployment and frustration over
corruption is forcing many to consider the risky journey.
Among the bodies returned on Sunday was that of 24-year-old Maryam Nouri, called Baran by her friends and family.
She perished during the ill-fated voyage across the English Channel with hopes of reuniting with her fiance in Britain.
The flimsy boat sank a few miles from the French coast, with at least 27 people bound for Britain drowned.
France’s interior minister called it the biggest migration tragedy involving the crossing to date.
The bodies of other victims also repatriated included Shakar Ali, Sarkawt Pirot and Avrasiya Ahmad, who came from the Ranya district of the Sulaymaniyah governorate in the Kurdish-run region of Iraq.
Hundreds of family members and friends attended a ceremony in the town to pay their last respects.
Relatives said the three had tried to make it to a better life in Europe as they had been unable to find employment in Iraq.
Shakar Ali “graduated from the oil department in geology college, which is a much-needed department for this country. But unfortunately, after many attempts – and we even paid money to people to get him a job, but he couldn’t get one,” his brother Haval Ali said.
“Many of his colleagues, those with connections, got jobs, except my brother … so he decided to migrate abroad.”
