ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least two people died when a boat carrying over 60 migrants capsized in the English Channel off the coast of France overnight on Thursday. One of the dead is a young man from the Kurdistan Region.
Rawezh Rauf, 22, was from the Raparin administration in Sulaimani province. His family held a memorial service and called on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to facilitate the return of his body so that he can be buried in their hometown of Hajiawa.
“We need the government’s assistance to return Rawezh’s body to alleviate the great tragedy we have endured. Help us bury our dear Rawezh at home,” Hassan Omar, a relative, told Rudaw’s Abubakir Ismael.
Rawezh and two of his cousins left the Kurdistan Region in the hopes of migrating to Europe around two months ago. The cousins were also on the capsized boat, but have been rescued and are receiving treatment in a hospital in France.
The mass migration of Kurdistan Region youths through illegal smuggling routes has surged in recent years, with a large number of them coming from Raparin. Officials from the administration have blamed a lack of services and job opportunities for the mass exodus.
Bakir Ali, head of the Association of Returned Migrants from Europe, said in December that in the past nine years, more than 34,000 out of the Region’s 153,600 migrants came from Raparin.
Over 3,200 people migrated from Raparin in 2022, and nearly 3,000 more have left since the start of the year, according to Ali. They range in age from 16 years to over 50 and most begin their journeys after obtaining visas for Poland, Hungary, or Bosnia and Herzegovina, he added.
Over 750,000 people have left Iraq since 2015, according to data from the Summit Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs (Lutka), which documented at least 319 migrant deaths during that period. The whereabouts of 236 others remain unknown.
According to data from the Association of Returned Migrants from Europe, more than 550 migrants have either drowned or gone missing over the past nine years, out of which over 150 are from Raparin.
