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Sirwan Alipour (photo submitted by family)
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The final messages of one of the migrants onboard the ill-fated dinghy last Wednesday, sent before the boat capsized between France and the UK, shows the heavy toll the tragedy has taken on the families of the dead as they wait for the bodies of their loved ones to be identified by the French authorities.
Rudaw English on Tuesday spoke by phone to Abubakir Alipour whose 23-year-old son Sirwan was on the inflatable boat. Abubakir, known as Wasta Bakir among locals, broke down twice on the phone and could not continue the conversation from the city of Sardasht in northwest Iran.
The family said they had been hoping that their son was alive somewhere in the UK because his boat had been on the move for six hours, according to WhatsApp messages exchanged between Sirwan and the family. However, after Rudaw's Znar Shino interviewed Mohammad Shekha, one of the two known survivors of the disaster, the family lost all hope and are now just waiting for the body of their son to be returned.
"Until the night Rudaw spoke to Mohammad Shekha, we were hopeful," Sirwan's cousin Mahmoud Alipour, a 33-year-old shop owner, told Rudaw English as he sat next to Sirwan's father, who could not stop crying and was unable to speak. "Why? Because we thought the boat that Sirwan was in had motored from 12 midnight until 6am [Iran time], and [we] thought the way from France to Britain was no longer than that. We thought they had passed and were in British waters. We could not imagine that the British would not come to their rescue."
The family's hopes were hinging on a WhatsApp conversation that the family had with Sirwan and an Iraqi Kurd he had befriended, named Shakar Ali. A copy of the conversation has been provided to Rudaw English.
The conversation corresponds with previous testimonies Rudaw has obtained from the survivors and an anonymous relative of two of the victims who was tracking the boat's movement on Facebook using the live location feature that night.
Sirwan was one of around 34 passengers on the dinghy. He had left Iran sometime in September, spending five days in a boat travelling from Turkey to Italy. He was in Calais for around one and a half months, according to his father, before boarding the dinghy on Tuesday night.
Sirwan spent $13,500 to travel from Iran to Calais and paid a smuggler $3,500 to cross the Channel, according to his father, speaking via his nephew Mahmoud. Sirwan had attempted the crossing four times earlier and, on one occasion, his phone stopped working due to water damage. "He said he did not need to buy a phone and he would use Shakar's phone as they were friends," Mahmoud told Rudaw English.
The WhatsApp conversation shows that Shakar and Sirwan messaged Abubakir, known also as Wasta Bakir, at 00:25 Iran time on November 24, 20:55 on November 23 in the UK, stating that they had just got into the "tube", meaning the inflatable boat.
Wasta Bakir responded five hours later by waving at them at 5:50 Iran time (2:20 UK time). Having heard nothing in reply, Wasta Bakir sent three messages in short succession at 5:51, 5:52 and 6:09 (Iran time) asking for an update. "Kaka answer me," the last message from Wasta Bakir reads. Kaka is an affectionate term used in Kurdish.
At 6:12 Iran time (2:42 UK time), Shakar Ali sent an audio message to Abubakir that appears to be the last communication sent from the boat. "Honest to God... we are in British and French waters. We don't know which one of them is coming to [rescue us]. I'm throwing away my mobile. If you don't hear from me, that means we are in Britain and if I return to France, then I'll call you myself," he said in the voice message, which Rudaw obtained a copy of.
In the background people are heard whistling, which appears to be an attempt to attract attention and alert anyone in the vicinity.
Related: Exclusive: Migrant survivor says British coastguard ignored call for help
According to the WhatsApp conversation, Shakar was using a British telephone number (Rudaw has the number) and was online until 6:44, which is 3:14 UK time.
Rudaw has spoken to the only two known survivors of the tragedy as well as family members who were closely following the boat's progress across the English Channel. All of the accounts suggest that the boat had crossed into British waters and that the migrants made multiple calls to UK and French authorities for help.
Rudaw English has spoken to the brother of another migrant who was believed to be on the boat. Zana Mamand's 18-year-old brother Twana is missing, and it is as yet unclear whether he is among the dead. Zana said that he has no doubt that the migrant's boat had arrived in British waters and provided a screenshot that appears to place the boat near Dover.
"After they reached British waters, I informed my sister and her husband who are in Britain that our brother had set off tonight and had reached British waters," Zana Mamand told Rudaw English on Tuesday.
"He sent the live location to my sister and then she took a screenshot and sent it back to me."
Related: Second migrant survivor says British ‘could hear us, we were crying for help’
The telephone number used by Twana on his WhatsApp was a Turkish number that provided the location to his sister. "This was the 7th time my brother tried to reach the UK and each time [until this time] the French returned him," Zana said via telephone from the town of Hajiawa in Sulaimani province.
"My sister is a British citizen and she is in Calais with her husband, [and] she provided DNA on Friday or Saturday," Zana said, adding that his sister has not been able to see the dead or establish their identity through their photos. Zana still hopes that his brother has arrived in the UK and is somewhere, unable to make contact with his family, even though he hasn't spoken to him since Wednesday morning, when the incident occured. "Once we are sure that the dead are our loved ones, we will release everything about the exact location of the boat inside British waters and we'll take the British government to court," he said.
The UK Home Office disputes these accounts, saying that the incident happened in French waters. A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesperson told Rudaw English via email that, "HM Coastguard is committed to safeguarding life around the seas and coastal areas of this country. On Wednesday 24th November, HM Coastguard received over 90 alerts, including 999 emergency calls, from the English Channel, and we responded to all of them."
"HM Coastguard does not routinely enter French waters unless asked to assist with a response by our search and rescue partners in France, as we were last week (24th November). On that occasion, we sent HM Coastguard's helicopter from Lydd to support the search and rescue effort and the RNLI lifeboat from Ramsgate also participated in the search."
In deep pain, Sirwan's father managed to bring himself to say that he wishes "only for the body to be brought back to me."
Additional reporting by Fouad Haqiqi
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