ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Three Kurds who were injured when their boat capsized off the coast of Italy this week are fighting for their lives in hospital, according to a relative. Eight other members of the same family lost their lives in the tragedy.
“There were two families of 11 individuals. They set off from Turkey’s Bodrum to the Italian coast. We were in contact until Wednesday afternoon. They said that they were in danger and would definitely arrive in Italy,” Bakhtyar Ismail, a relative of the victims, told Rudaw 's Mohammed Izzedin on Wednesday.
“They were in the boat whose engine exploded… Three of our 11 relatives have survived,” he said.
The three surviving family members, a woman and two children, are in hospital in unstable condition.
“One of them is burned and in terrible condition,” said Ismail, adding that he is sure the other eight members of his family are dead.
At least 70 people are dead and presumed missing after two ships capsized in separate incidents off the Italian coast this week. Most of the passengers were Kurds from the Kurdistan Region and Iran’s western Kurdish areas, as well as people from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, and Syria.
Ismail said Mujda Omar, one of the survivors, told him that she saw eight of his relatives dying in the water.
The group left for Istanbul five months ago. They initially decided to return to the Kurdistan Region but then changed their minds, according to Ismail, who accused the smugglers of deceiving them by repeatedly saying that everything was fine and promising they would arrive in Italy safely.
Ismail said two of the smugglers are from the Kurdistan Region and a third is from Kurdish areas in western Iran.
He noted their connection with the smuggler, who was his point of contact, was cut off on Saturday.
On Sunday, the Italian coastguard reported that authorities were alerted by a French pleasure boat to the presence of a “half-sunken” boat around 120 nautical miles off the coast of Italy. The French vessel rescued 12 survivors, one of whom died after disembarking. The survivors are receiving treatment at a medical facility in the town of Roccella Ionica in southern Italy.
“We remain astonished by what happened in Lampedusa and Roccella Ionica, in two lands that are a place of welcome for us and where, once again, unfortunately the journey of two boats was unable to end, due to circumstances that need to be ascertained,” Italian Red Cross President Rosario Valastro told Rudaw on Wednesday.
“The first testimonies and estimates collected by the volunteers involved in supporting the migrants speak of a total of over 70 people missing and dead at sea,” Valastro said.
Tens of thousands of people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region take perilous routes out of the country towards Europe every year in hopes of escaping endless crises in the country, including a lack of employment, political instability, and corruption.
Around 20,000 people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region left the country in 2023 and at least nine of them lost their lives on dangerous and illegal smuggling routes, according to the Summit (Lutka) Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs.
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