Kurdish father mourns son crossing English Channel

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kamaran Mohammed recalled the loss of his 25-year-old son Diyari Kamaran, who died on Sunday, as they both were trying to reach the United Kingdom from France by crossing the English Channel. Their family from the Kurdistan Region is also asking authorities for help to repatriate Diyari's body.

“We set out on Saturday night into Sunday morning,” the grieving father told Rudaw in Calais, France, on Monday.

Around 90 migrants had gathered near the shore in Ambleteuse, France, on Saturday night to board a boat for England; however, Kamaran Mohammed said that some people did not go on the doomed craft.

“We boarded the boat, which was initially said to be nine meters long. However, a boy we became friends with along the way, who I believe was from Sudan, told me it was actually seven meters,” the father recalled.

Thousands of migrants attempt the dangerous and often deadly crossing every year in hopes of reaching the United Kingdom. The father and son made the journey from the Darbandikhan district in the Kurdistan Region’s province of Sulaimani.

“When we boarded, we were told everyone had to get on within five minutes,” Kamaran Mohammed said. “Everyone piled onto the boat, and we ended up under their feet. As far as I was aware, we sailed for about 20 minutes before water started leaking into the boat.”

People began panicking and a crowd formed, according to the father. They were then trampled, as his son screamed for help.

“Dad, the water is reaching my mouth and throat. What should I do?” the father recalled his son Diyari as saying. 

In the moments before the son lost consciousness, his father remembered hearing Diyari reciting the Shahada, the Islamic profession of faith.

“When they returned the boat to the French border, people poured water on my face, and I woke up. I saw the bodies myself. There were eight bodies, one of which was my son,” Kamaran Mohammed said tearfully.

The father attempted to revive Diyari with rescue breaths, but it was futile.

“Now, I don’t know where my son’s body is," the grief-stricken father lamented on Monday.
Back in Darbandikhan, the family is grappling with the 25-year-old’s loss and pleading for the return of his body. At his funeral, family members expressed frustration and grief over the lack of support from authorities.

Repatriation of bodies from Europe is expensive with layers of international, federal, and local bureaucracy, as well as transportation costs often involving commercial airlines to expedite the process.

“My brother sold his house and car,” said Abdullah Mohammed, Diyari’s uncle. “He had nothing [else] to do. He had a pension of 220,000 Iraqi dinars [about $167]. He has four children.”

Diyari’s grandfather, Mohammed Kaka, echoed the family's plea: "We are asking the government to help us bring his body back. We cannot do anything."

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 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.

Zinar Shino contributed to this report.