Bodies of Kurds drowned in Greek waters to return home

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The bodies of several Kurdish migrants are set to return to the Kurdistan Region months after they drowned in Greek waters while attempting to reach Europe in search of a better life, a refugee foundation said on Monday.

The bodies of five Kurds, including two children, will arrive at Erbil International Airport at 4:05 pm on Tuesday, the representative of Summit (Lutka) Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs for Greece, Hussein Hama Saleh announced.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Monday afternoon also confirmed the return of the bodies. 

“After cooperating with the interior ministry and performing the legal procedures and DNA identification for the victims and upon the orders of Kurdistan Region Prime Minister [Masrour Barzani], the Department of Foreign Relations tomorrow [Tuesday] will return the bodies of five victims who have been identified,” read a KRG statement. 

One of the children is two-year-old and the other is aged six, according to Lutka. Alongside them, the body of a woman and two men will also be returned home.

At least three separate migrants’ boats capsized in the Aegean Sea late last year, with about 30 people, including Kurds, dying in the water between December 22 and 25. The details of the incidents and the total number of migrants the boat carried remain unclear.

An 11-year-old boy who lost his entire family in the Aegean Sea was returned to his hometown of Koya In March.

Dozens of mourning families received the bodies of their loved ones in Erbil in February. Their repatriation followed a directive issued by PM Barzani.

Greece is one of the main routes into the European Union for refugees and migrants. However, the flow tapered off following the arrival of nearly one million people, including Syrian Kurds, in Europe after crossing to Greek islands close to Turkey in 2015.

Tens of thousands of mostly young Kurds left the Kurdistan Region for Europe last year in search of a better life, using people’s smuggling routes. A number of these migrants died in freezing temperatures on the Belarus-Poland border and others drowned in the sea, suffering a catastrophic fate.

The bodies of 16 migrants, who drowned in the deadliest migrant disaster in the English Channel, were returned to the Kurdistan Region in late December.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) described the incident in the Channel as the "worst disaster on record."

The Kurdistan Region, often called a safe haven within Iraq, is facing crises of its own - high unemployment, corruption, political instability, and an economic downturn during the coronavirus pandemic.

The KRG has acknowledged the existence of systemic problems and financial hardships but says it is working to address these issues.