Brothers, four children die en route to Europe

ERBIL, Kurdistan (K24) - Two brothers and four children from Kirkuk died as their boat sank en route to Europe from Turkey. Their family has asked the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to help return their bodies to the Kurdistan Region.

Salar, father of four children along with his brother, Qadir, and wife “have been gone since 20 days ago, they decided to leave without even informing us, they told us that they were leaving on the phone,” the oldest brother, Dilshad, said with eyes full of tears. “I begged them not to go but they wouldn’t listen to me, they had already decided to leave,” he added, speaking to K24.

Speaking about her youngest son, Qadir, whose body has not been found yet, his mother says that his body is now food for fishes, “It was his last year in college, but he kept saying that life is boring here.”

On Tuesday night, December 15, we were informed that the boat Qadir, Salar, and his wife and four children were using collided in the sea resulting in the death of the two brothers and the children.

“On that night we were not sure if they were still alive or not until Salar’s wife, who survived the accident, told us in the morning that Salar and Qadir and the children are all dead,” the mother added.

“They meant everything to me. I still cannot believe that they are gone,” Dilshad told a K24 reporter.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) published a report on its website where more than 3,619 migrants have been reported dead trying to cross to Europe, with half of these migrants losing their lives in the Mediterranean.

The father of Qadir and Salar blames the government for not helping people which, according to him, does not leave any other choices to the people except leaving the country. But he advises youth and people, “to not risk their lives. Why would they leave? Isn’t this our homeland? If they leave who is staying here,” he said.

According to the IOM report on December 21, 2015, over a million illegal migrants and refugees arrived in Europe in 2015, most of them from Syria, Africa and South Asia.

 
(Soran Kamaran from Kirkuk contributed to this report)