Most of the victims were Iraqi Kurds, including a teenager and a child, with multiple nationalities represented
French authorities have officially identified 26 of the 27 victims who tragically drowned in a Channel dinghy incident last month. According to a statement from the Paris prosecutor, most of the deceased were Iraqi Kurds. Among the victims were 17 men, aged 19 to 26, seven women aged 22 to 46, a 16-year-old teenager, and a seven-year-old child.
Of the 26 identified victims, 16 were Iraqi Kurds, four were Afghan men, three were Ethiopians, and the group also included a Somali woman, an Iranian, and an Egyptian man.
The identification process is often complicated by the lack of official documents carried by asylum seekers, leaving their families to travel from distant locations to identify their loved ones. Following the tragedy, relatives of the missing rushed to the coroner’s office in Lille, France, to confirm if their family members were among the victims. One of the deceased, 24-year-old Afghan Hussein, had only arrived in Dunkirk a few days before his death, where he was staying with his cousin.
