A 24-year-old Kurdish from northern Iraq was the first victim of the massive drowning in the English Channel identified this week. Mariam Nuri Mohamed Amin was one of 27 people who died trying to enter Britain on Wednesday. His fiancé, who lives in the UK, told the she texted him when the group’s boat started to crash.
He tries to convince her that they will be saved.
But help came too late: she and 17 men, six other women – one of whom was pregnant. And three children died when their inflatable boat sank in the sea off the north coast of France. There were only two survivors, an Iraqi and a Somali. The disaster was the most considerable sinking loss in the English Channel for years.
His fiancé told him that Mariam, nicknamed Baran, was on the boat with a relative. Unaware of previous attempts to cross the English Channel. He said Mariam’s arrival in England should have come as a surprise.
They wrote Snapchat just before the ship started losing air, he said. Mariam told him the boat had crashed, and they were trying to get the water out. He said he tried to reassure him in his latest message and gave him hope that the authorities were on the right track to save him.
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According to reports from Calais, the two drowning victims were discharged from the hospital on Wednesday. And will be asked how many people were on board. Mariam’s uncle confirmed to the BBC that he was one of the people who drowned in the English Channel.
He said the family had heard messages from two people with him, and the family was waiting for his body to be sent back to Iraq. Mariam’s family said she had tried twice to reach the UK legally and had gone to the British embassy. But the process was “slow,” forcing them to take the route she chose. Nuri Hamadamin, Mariam’s father, told: “The whole world talks about Europe as a place of peace. Does peace mean fun? About 30 people died in the middle of the sea?
“It is a sin to push people through it.”
On Friday night, his father, family, and friends gathered at their Disaster Channel home in northern Iraq to share and remember their grief. Mariam’s best friend, Iman Hassan, said her boyfriend was “very humble” and had a “huge heart.” “When she left Kurdistan. She was so happy, she couldn’t believe she was going to meet her husband,” Hassan told the BBC on Friday night.
When he got engaged, he said to me, “I will buy a house and live near you … we will live together.” Ms. Hassan said he wanted to message the world that “no one deserves to die this way.” “He tried to have a better life, chose England, but died.”