(Erbil) The bodies of 16 victims, who died in November in a shipwreck in the Channel that left 27 dead, were repatriated on Sunday before dawn to Iraqi Kurdistan where families were waiting for them to organize a funeral, noted a AFP photographer.
The plane arrived around 2 a.m. (11 p.m. GMT) at the airport in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous region in northern Iraq. The victims were transferred to ambulances which left the airport to transport them to their hometown in Kurdistan, the photographer said.
The bodies will go to the cities of Darbandikhan, Ranya, but also Soran or Qadrawa, where AFP had met in November the families who were waiting in anguish for news of a son or a relative potentially found on the island. boat.
At least 27 people perished in the tragedy of November 24, the deadliest to occur in the Channel, crisscrossed daily by migrants trying to reach the English coasts aboard fragile boats.
In a terminal at Erbil airport, families waited in emotion for the arrival of the victims, according to the AFP photographer.
Dozens of people, men, women and children, were present, some hugging each other. Women, all dressed in black, lamented the disappearance of a loved one, another exhibited photos of a young man.
Originally scheduled for Friday, the repatriation has been postponed twice. Before dawn on Saturday, dozens of relatives had already waited long hours, only to be told at the last minute that the plane would not come.
Of the bodies found, 26 were identified in France: 17 men and seven women aged 19 to 46, a 16-year-old teenager and a 7-year-old child.
In addition to the sixteen Kurds from Iraq, there is also a Kurd from Iran, three Ethiopians, a Somali, four Afghans and an Egyptian.
Only two men had been rescued, an Iraqi Kurd and a Sudanese according to the French Interior Ministry.
According to one person’s testimony, 33 people were on board when the smugglers counted them.
Questions arise about the calls that migrants would have made to the French and English authorities, when their makeshift boat began to sink, according to the testimony of a survivor.
The Manche maritime prefecture had ruled out that the appeal of migrants in difficulty was not dealt with.