As reported by The Times today, a young woman from Iraqi Kurdistan, who was travelling to Britain to be with her husband, was among those who died in the Channel tragedy.
She was Baran Nuri Muhamadamin, 24, from the town of Souran in the far northeast of Iraqi Kurdistan, where the territory meets the Turkish and Iranian borders. The woman’s uncle, Kurmanj Ezzat, told The Times that the death had been confirmed by a friend of her husband, who was also living in the UK and had arranged for his own wife to travel with her.
“He went to France and met them and told them how to cross the water,” he said.“He then went to wait for them in the UK. But after two or three days he had not heard from them, so he went to France and was told that the boat had broken up.”“It’s a truly horrible thing,” he said, breaking down into tears. “It is very hard for us to talk about it.”
He said that the family was awaiting the return of the bodies.
A fisherman who discovered the bodies of the 27 migrants who had drowned in the Channel described the scene as like a “horror film”. you can read the full article in The Times (£)
My feelings: Who could not be numbed with profound shock and pain from the news of desperate people – men, women and children – drowning in the short stretch of sea between France and Britain, two of the world’s richest countries?
Nobody should die trying to reach English shores to claim asylum.
Whilst leaders on both sides of the Channel play political football, real people – people just like you and me – are having to risk their lives to get here when that should not be made necessary. As revealed in research undertaken by the Refugee Council, most of those making frantic journeys in unsafe small boats or dinghies are genuine refugees. They are mostly escaping from war torn countries and are in need of sanctuary.
Most refugees don’t come to the UK, and most don’t want to. But the relative few who do – and really, by comparison with other European countries, it’s a tiny number – mostly do so for compelling reasons.
Top of the list is because they already have family here, such as Baran Nuri Muhamadamin, who took the journey to be with her husband (or fiancé according to some news sources) already in Britain.
Asylum seekers don’t pay nasty, despicable criminals thousands of pounds each to climb into makeshift boats for perilous, treacherous journeys out of choice. They do so because there is NO choice.
Our political masters have conspired to ensure there are NO safe or legal routes for them to get here. And it’s that which should be classified as criminal and illegal, and not those innocent refugees.
If you feel moved by this story and would like to help refugees coming to UK, please consider making a donation to the Refugee Council. There is a donation button on my original Facebook post here, and every amount donated is passed to the charity in full without any fees deducted.
You can follow Jon Danzig’s daily journalism on Facebook at Facebook.com/JonDanzigWrites
Please watch and share this speech by crossbench peer, Lord Kerr of Kinlochard. It debunks the misleading statements made by Patel and others. Ed
Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Director, said:
“In the wake of the devastating tragedy at the Channel yesterday, the UK Government must urgently take decisive action to prevent more loss of life.
“The UK must make it a priority to share responsibility with other countries to receive people into its asylum system – they must do this by providing safe and legal routes and encourage others to do the same.
“We must remember that dangerous journeys take place because the Government provides no safe alternative for people to exercise their right to seek asylum here.
“The Afghanistan Citizenship Resettlement Scheme is one example of the Government’s fundamental failure to provide safe routes – a scheme announced in August that has still not opened – ministers cannot even guarantee it will open anytime soon.
“The UK’s failure to play its part in providing protection to people who are fleeing conflict and persecution is even more distressing at a time when the Home Office is trying to push through its draconian Nationality and Borders Bill. This new policy will further exacerbate the asylum system and continue to punish and exclude people seeking safety.
“If the Government is truly concerned with tackling these gangs and their abuse of people, they must set up safe asylum routes, so people no longer need to depend on smugglers.
“We desperately need a new approach to asylum – including genuine Anglo-French efforts to devise safe asylum routes, a major overhaul of the painfully slow applications system, an end to the use of dangerous and unsuitable accommodation facilities like Napier Barracks, and a political approach based on real humanity.”
The abhorrent Nationality and Borders Bill will also seek to criminalise those who help refugees making these dangerous crossings. Technically this could include the RNLI. The Bill and its cruel agenda shames this government and this country. Ed
Please also considering donating to the RNLI. We are better than this, surely? Ed
