SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The bodies of 16 migrants who drowned last month in a Channel boat accident were repatriated to the Kurdistan Region on Sunday, Esta Media Network’s reporter said.
The plane carrying them arrived around 2:00 a.m. (EBL time), as their families waited for the arrival of their loved ones at the terminal at Erbil airport.
The remains were transferred to ambulances to transport them to their hometowns of Darbandikhan, Raparin, Soran, Zakho and Erbil.
The repatriation had been postponed twice due to bad weather and other technical issues.
At least 27 people perished in the November 24 tragedy, the deadliest disaster since the Channel became a hub for clandestine migrant crossings from France to England.
They were mostly men but also included seven women, a 16-year-old and a seven-year-old child, according to AFP.
Besides the 16 people from the Kurdistan Region, the 26 identified including an Iranian Kurd, four Afghans men, three Ethiopians, a Somali and an Egyptian.
Only two people were rescued after their inflatable boat capsized, a man from the Kurdistan Region and a Sudanese national, according to the French interior ministry.
The accident was the most deadly involving a migrant boat in the Channel and cast a spotlight on the increasing number of desperate people seeking to cross the narrow waterway between France and England.
