ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The bodies of three Kurdish migrants, whose boat capsized en route to Europe in December, have been recovered from the Greek coast of the Aegean Sea over the past two weeks, the representative of a foundation working with refugees and displaced persons told Rudaw on Tuesday.
“In the past two weeks, the body of a Kurdish migrant child was found, and two other bodies have been found ever since who lost their lives when their boat capsized on December 21, 2021 on the coast of Greece,” Hussein Hama Salih the Greece representative of Summit (Lutka) Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs told Rudaw.
He identified the bodies as those of Ameera Othman, 32, four-year-old Hanasa Hazhar, and Rezhwar Rebwar, aged 7.
The two children are from Koya town, he added.
At least three separate migrants’ boats capsized in the Aegean Sea late last year, with about 30 people, including Kurds, drowning in the water between December 21 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.
According to Saleh, the bodies of the two children belonged to the same family.
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.
Dozens of mourning families received the bodies of their loved ones in Erbil in February. Their repatriation followed a directive issued by Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.
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 Kurdish government has acknowledged the existence of systemic problems and financial hardships but says it is working to address these issues.
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