‘They don’t see us as humans’: Family’s anger at people smugglers after daughter dies in boat tragedy
Mohammed looks at me, his eyes wet from tears, and shakes his head gently. Grief is like a weight around him, which he meets with forced smiles and choked-back tears.
“Every day, I think of dying a hundred times,” he says.
Next to him is his wife, Nour, heavily pregnant and sobbing into her hands. She is due to give birth in just a couple of weeks, but now mourns her daughter just as she awaits the arrival of a son.
It is less than a week since Rula drowned in a French canal, and the devastation is still desperately etched on their faces.
Nour unlocks her phone and calls up a photo of Rula. She is smiling out from the screen.
“She was beautiful and I lost her. My little princess. She was seven years old, she had seen nothing in this world. We just wanted to make their lives better,” she says.
Rula died because of the family’s dream of reaching Britain. They had spent years travelling from Iraq, where their lives were threatened, across Europe, to Germany and then on to France.
Nour and her family had spent years travelling from Iraq, where their lives were threatened
A few days ago, the family boarded a boat in France, intent on reaching Britain. They had paid a people smuggler €6,000, and been promised seats aboard the sort of vessel used for tourist trips – safe and reliable.
Instead, they were placed on a death-trap – an overloaded stolen pleasure-boat with no life jackets that capsized on a canal. Rula, who had sought refuge from the noise in a small cabin at the front of the boat, was trapped inside.
“The water came into the cabin and she was stuck,” says Mohammed.
“The smugglers had left us. I had to rescue my wife, my son and another person. But I couldn’t rescue her.”
They are too tired to shout or become furious. But if you ask them about blame, then the answer comes back.
“My daughter died and the reason why is because of the people smugglers who have no morals,” he says.
“They fooled us, took money from us and threw us in the water without any mercy. They do not see humans as humans – they only see materials and money.”
Muhaimen pays his respects at his sister’s funeral
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Rula’s death poses tough question for politicians
Besides them are their three sons – Muhaimen, 14, Hassan, 10, and Moamel, eight. They listen and nod along quietly.
“She was very dear to us, but what do we do?” says Hassan, when I ask him about his sister.
“I want her to come back but she won’t.” His grief is so thick it bewilders him.
The family invited us to talk to them. They wanted the world to know about their daughter, but they also wanted to talk about their exasperation with the life they’ve ended up living – fleeing a home where they cannot stay, but struggling to find a place where they can actually settle.
“I do not know what to do or where to go,” Nour says. “What crime have these children committed? What is their future? I need a country to listen to me, just take their papers.”
Mohammed nods and holds his wife. “When you reach a point when your life is not secure, when your children could get killed, you have no choice but to migrate and go to countries that preach humanity.
Rula’s father Mohammed speaks to Sky News
“But when you talk to them, tell them your story, they threaten you with deportation. Our children are smart but honestly, sometimes we wonder – why did we bring them into this world?”
I ask if they would still like to go to Britain, despite all the trauma they have experienced. The answer is yes. Remarkably, they plan on trying again.
A message comes through. The family has been asked to go to the morgue in Lille.
Mohammed comes in and out, a ball of nervous tension. Hassan and Moamel play with a paper aeroplane on a patch of lawn over the road from the morgue. They find a ladybird and agree that Rula would have loved it.
But then they are called back in, and they see her body, and when we see the boys next they are silent but for their weeping.
A short while later, Rula’s body is released to the family but there is little time to waste. Muslim tradition dictates that the burial must take place before sunrise.
When we get to the graveyard, there are dozens of people waiting – sympathetic strangers who’ve come to offer solace. You can see the family are touched.
At the far end, under the shadow of a tall electricity pylon but shaded from the traffic noise, Rula’s coffin is lowered into a grave.
Rula was buried during a small ceremony
There is a prayer, a moment of reflection, and then the grave is filled in. Her father and brothers all rub their hands in the soil. A bag is filled with the dirt and given to Nour. Flowers are placed over the grave, as well as photos of Rula. A marker is put in place, remembering her name. Hassan kisses it.
We say goodbye to the family, and one thing strikes me. If Mohammed, Nour and their children do eventually get to the UK, they will not be allowed to travel abroad again for a long time.
Reaching Britain will mean being cut off from their daughter’s final resting place, unable to lay flowers on Rula’s grave. Like so much in the story of migration, it is also a tale of making terrible choices.
World
Jay Slater: Tenerife police call for volunteers to take part in large-scale search for missing British teenager
Police in Tenerife have called for volunteers to take part in a large-scale search for missing British teenager Jay Slater.
Officials said it would take place on Saturday in the village of Masca on the Spanish island.
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Volunteers called for in Jay Slater search
In a statement, police said: “The Guardia Civil prepares and coordinates a large search to find the young British man missing in the village of Masca.
“The collaboration of all those volunteer associations is requested: Civil protection, firefighters, etc., and even private volunteers who are experts in the abrupt search terrain.
“The massive search will be carried out on Saturday, 29 June from 9am.
“Bearing in mind that this is an abrupt, rocky area, full of unevenness and with a multitude of ravines, paths and roads, the collaboration of all those associations of volunteers who can help in this raid that is intended to be carried out in a directed and coordinated manner is requested,” the statement said.
The Los Carrizales ravine which was being searched by police. Pic: Reuters
Canarian police officers carry out a drone search in the Los Carrizales ravine. Pic: Reuters
Police said volunteers should call the Guardia Civil before 8pm this evening if they want to join the search.
The 19-year-old, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, disappeared following an attempt to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus.
The apprentice bricklayer had attended the NRG music festival on the island with two friends before his disappearance and was last heard from on Monday last week.
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Police search mountains for Jay Slater
The walk from Mr Slater’s last known location, Rural de Teno Park in the north of the island, to his accommodation would have taken about 11 hours on foot.
Map showing Jay Slater’s last known location in Masca, Los Carrizales where police are searching and Los Cristianos, where Jay was staying
Meanwhile, one of Mr Slater’s friends told ITV’s This Morning about his last video call with the 19-year-old.
Brad, a close friend of Mr Slater, said yes to the reporter’s question as to whether he saw the missing teenager’s feet slide on rocks. He said that is how he knew Mr Slater was not on a road, and described the sound as when someone is walking on gravel or stones.
Brad added that Mr Slater went down a “little drop” in one of his last video calls.
Read more:
‘My son went missing in Ibiza – I know how Jay Slater’s parents feel’
He said the missing teenager was not concerned and that they were both “laughing” about the situation.
“He said, ‘look where I am’. He didn’t seem concerned on the phone until we knew how far away he were,” Brad said.
“I said, ‘put your location on’. He said: ’15-minute drive, 14-hour walk’. I don’t know if it’s accurate or not so I said to him: ‘It’s only a 15-minute drive, get a taxi’.”
Today’s police statement comes as Mr Slater’s family welcomed the help of a TikTok creator among those leading an online search for the missing teenager.
Sky News spoke earlier this week to Paul Arnott, who has been sharing clips of his own search effort on TikTok and said he came to Tenerife when he heard the family “needed help”.
According to The Daily Telegraph, his efforts attracted the interest of Mr Slater’s family, who contacted him and arranged a meeting on Thursday.
Jay Slater is an apprentice bricklayer. Pic: PH Build Group
“They said they’re really proud of what I’m doing,” Mr Arnott, 29, told the newspaper.
Mr Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, told the paper she has “every faith” in the police and singled out Mr Arnott, who runs the TikTok account Down the Rapids and describes himself as an “explorer”, and another TikTok creator Callum Rahim for thanks.
Read more:
Spanish authorities remain silent on missing teen
Emergency services using drones hone in on area
“[I] can’t thank Paul Arnott enough, also Callum Rahim and his friends for working alongside with the search and rescue teams,” she said.
“Myself, well, you know the state of my mental health and my paranoia, you saw it first hand. As a family, we are in a living nightmare.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Social media has also had a dark side for the family, with Ms Duncan and her son’s friends at the centre of conspiracy theories.
The construction company that employs Mr Slater shared a post on Facebook earlier on Thursday urging people to stop sending them “cruel” emails and to stop posting theories online.
Also on Thursday, Ms Duncan said £36,000 raised by more than 3,200 donations will help cover her accommodation and food costs during her extended stay on the island as well as support rescue teams.
A British man has died off the Greek island of Spetses.
He had been taking part in a yachting regatta and authorities said he was found dead on Friday.
The man, who was in his forties, was found in a bay area of the island with what appeared to be injuries on the left side of his head, according to the coastguard.
The Greek island, which is part of the Saronic Islands group, has an area of 27km² and is home to just over 3,700 people.
The coastguard added that he was taken to a local hospital where he was confirmed dead.
Local media reported the man was part of a team taking part in an annual classic yacht regatta running from 26 to 29 June.
Tourist deaths
A postmortem will be carried out to determine the cause of death.
There have been several recent cases where tourists have gone missing or died on Greek islands.
Earlier this month, TV medic Dr Michael Mosley was found dead after going missing on the island of Symi.
He had gone for a walk on his own from Saint Nikolas Beach and his wife said he had “so very nearly made it”.
The body of an American man was found on the Greek island of Mathraki.
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It comes after Greece has experienced severe heatwaves in recent weeks.
Some local media outlets have urged officials to tell tourists about the dangers of setting off on hikes in intense heat.
Temperatures reached 45C (113F) earlier this month, as schools in Athens closed their doors and Rhodes was hit by an earthquake.
One person has been killed and six more have been injured in India after part of the roof at an airport collapsed in heavy rain.
The incident at the domestic departure terminal of New Delhi‘s Indira Gandhi International Airport happened at around 5am local time on Friday as heavy pre-monsoon rains lashed the capital.
A crew removes water outside the airport on Friday. Pic: AP
All flight departures from Terminal 1 were temporarily suspended as rescuers cleared the debris to save anyone trapped, the airport authority said.
The collapsed roof at the domestic departure terminal. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
Some support beams also collapsed, damaging cars in the pickup and drop-off area of the terminal, local media reported.
Of the six injured, one was rescued from a car on which an iron beam had fallen.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu said first responders were working at the site and advised airlines to assist all affected passengers.
“Rescue operations are still ongoing,” he said in a post on X.
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