SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Families of migrants who drowned in the Aegean Sea last month protested in Erbil on Wednesday, calling on the government to help locate those who have gone missing.
Dozens of migrants have gone missing after a boat sank off the cost of Folegandros island on December 21.
Relatives of the victims protested in Erbil said there were 28 Kurds among the 70 migrants onboard the boat.
Thirteen migrants were rescued, including seven Kurds, they added.
Lutka Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs said last month that 23 Kurdish migrants had gone missing, while seven others Kurds were rescued in the shipwreck.
“So far, 12 bodies have been found. Samples were taken from relatives who had tested in the Kurdistan Region, but we aren’t given the results,” a representative speaking on behalf of the migrants’ families told reporters.
They called on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to locate the migrants gone missing through its department of foreign affairs, Greek consulate in Iraq and Iraqi consulate in Greece.
In another shipwreck on December 23, bodies of nine more migrants from the Kurdistan Region were found near the island of Antikythera, southern Greece, according to Lutka.
Greece is one of the main routes into the European Union for migrants and refugees from Africa, the Middle East and beyond, though the flow has tapered off since 2015-2016, when more than a million people traversed the country to other EU states.
UNHCR said in a statement that at least 31 people died in the shipwrecks last month, while an unknown number were still missing.
Greek coast guards rescued more than 160 people, the UNHCR added.
More than 2,500 people have died or gone missing at sea in their attempt to reach Europe from January until the end of November, according to the UNHCR.
