ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish man from Sulaimani province was one of the eight people who died after a migrant boat capsized while trying to cross the English Channel on Sunday, a local official told Rudaw.
“One of the migrants on the capsized boat who died is a young Kurd, a resident from Darbandikhan, who was with his father,” Sulaiman Mohammed, mayor of Darbandikhan, told Rudaw.
A vessel carrying nearly 60 people capsized early Sunday while attempting to cross the busy waters between France and England. At least eight people lost their lives, and six survivors were hospitalized including a 10-month-old, according to AFP.
The mayor identified the Kurdish victim as 25-year-old Diyari Kamaran, adding that his father survived the incident, and is awaiting coordination between French and Kurdish authorities to return the body.
“We have spoken to Diyari’s father, and he told us that in addition to his son and himself, there were other Kurds in the dinghy, but it is yet unknown if any other of them have lost their lives apart from Diyari,” said Mohammed.
Tens of thousands of people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region take on perilous routes towards Europe on a yearly basis in hopes of escaping endless crises, including the lack of employment, political instability, and corruption.
Feryal Clark, Labour MP of the UK’s House of Commons told Rudaw, told Rudaw in July that the United Kingdom needs better policies to deal with immigration.
“People who have taken the horrible of a journey and it is unacceptable, we need a fairer, better way of dealing with immigration, we need to have legal routes, as we had for Ukraine, as we had for Afghanistan, where people can apply in the country they are in, and travel without having to take this perilous journey,” she said.
Around 20,000 people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region migrated out of the country in 2023, with at least nine of them losing their lives on the dangerous and illegal smuggling routes, according to the Summit (Lutka) Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs.
Malik Mohammed contributed to this report.
