Bodies of mother, daughter who drowned in Aegean returned to Sulaimani

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The bodies of Naila Mustafa and her 9-month-old daughter Noor who drowned when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea, were returned to Sulaimani on Saturday to be buried in Ranya.

"On November 28, we received news that their boat had sunk in the waters between Turkey and Greece. Besides my niece and her daughter, three Afghans drowned," Mustafa’s uncle Ismail told Rudaw, adding that the boat they were on could carry a maximum of 15 people but the smuggler had 32 people aboard.

Ismail said Mustafa and her family decided to leave the Kurdistan Region after her spouse lost his job.

Mustafa’s brother Rasul Mustafa said they have learned that the boat operator and the smuggler are Turkish nationals and were arrested by the Greek police.

“The Greek police encountered the smugglers on the way and out of fear of being caught, they quickly turned the boat, resulting in the boat capsizing and five victims,” Rasul Mustafa explained at a press conference on Saturday. 

Speaking to Rudaw the day after the boat sank, Mustafa’s husband Kawez Saadulla also blamed the smuggler for the death of his family.  

The boat sank north of the island of Samos, Peshraw Abdullah, a representative of the Returning Refugees Association, told Rudaw after the tragedy.

According to a report of the Association of Returning Kurdish Refugees in Europe, 46 citizens of the Kurdistan Region have lost their lives this year, 14 of whom were from the Autonomous Administration of Raparin, which includes the city of Ranya.

Every year, tens of thousands of people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region take perilous routes out of the country toward Europe in the hope of escaping endless crises, including a lack of employment, political instability, and corruption.