‘I wanted her to have a future’: Dad’s grief as he buries daughter, 7, crushed to death on migrant boat
There are times when a person is so gripped with helpless despair that they are lost within themselves. Ahmed Alhashimi, a proud man, looks at the small coffin, wrings his hands, stares at the ground and weeps.
Inside the bright white coffin is the body of his daughter, Sara. Watched by a small crowd of family members, charity workers, well-meaning locals and even council workers, her coffin is lowered into a grave.
Then, for 10 or 15 minutes, a group of mourners work hard to use shovels, and even bare hands, to fill the grave with earth.
The mound is patted down, a wooden marker put in place, with her name engraved upon it, and flowers are placed on the grave along with flowers, photos and – crushingly – a favourite soft toy.
Sara died after being crushed on an overcrowded migrant boat
Watched by a small crowd of family members, charity workers, well-meaning locals and even council workers, Sara’s coffin was lowered into a grave
Sara was just seven years old when she died a fortnight ago, crushed on a horrendously overcrowded migrant boat that left shore with more than 100 people on board.
Four other people died that day, too. But it is the image of Sara – young, innocent and vulnerable – that lingers. The death of a child is chilling for anyone. For her family, it is devastating.
They want to remember her, to celebrate and mourn. And so it is that, as we stand next to the morgue where his daughter’s body rests, Ahmed actually wants to talk to me.
Sara’s dad, Ahmed Alhashimi
He invites us to spend the day with him, travelling to the morgue in Lille where prayers are offered, and then to her burial.
“For all the sadness and sorrow, those final scenes of her life are ones that I will never forget,” he tells me, glassy-eyed.
“When she was taken out of the boat, those scenes I will never forget for the rest of my life.
“I lost my daughter. Every father who has a daughter, who knows the love you get from a daughter, can imagine the feeling they would suffer if they were to lose their daughter. For me – I am not imagining. I lost her for real.”
‘She was like a butterfly, like a bird, she was everything to us’, Sara’s father said about his daughter
The story of cross-Channel migration is a long one, and it is pockmarked with victims. But Sara is unusual in this. Her parents were Iraqis, but they met in Belgium, where Sara was born while her parents lived in Antwerp.
The family spent some time in Finland, but then tried to make their lives in Sweden. Sara went to school there and learned the language.
Other members of her extended family had been given asylum in the country but, for some reason, Ahmed’s immediate family were denied that status.
They feared being deported back to Iraq and so, instead, decided to try to reach the United Kingdom.
“We were in Sweden for seven years and we did not even think of leaving” Ahmed tells me. “Our children would go to school and live their normal lives. But when we were obliged to leave Sweden, when we received the deportation letter, I was left with no alternative.
“I had no choice,” Ahmed says. “I wanted to protect her life, I wanted her to have a future, a life with dignity like other children, but I could not. Everything went against me.
“The Swedish government, and the immigration officials, are the reason behind the tragedy we suffered. We are talking about children, who were born here in Europe. How could you send them to Iraq?”
I wonder whether he has thought of the future, of what would happen to his family now. Does he still hope to cross the Channel?
Ahmed shakes his head. “Of course not, of course not,” he says, gently. “I do not think of that any more, just the thought of that hurts me.
“I lost my child, I lost my daughter. She was like a butterfly, like a bird, she was everything to us, the light in our home, our source of laughter, she was everything. I lost her and I do not want to lose her brothers.”
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He says the boat on which they were travelling was packed, but safe until it was boarded by a rival group of migrants.
“They attacked us,” he tells me. “The water was only a metre deep but there was chaos. That’s when people suffocated.”
His hope now is that the British government will see his pain, feel his loss, and offer hope.
“I call on the British people and the government to help me reach Britain legally. I don’t want assistance. I can work, so can my wife. I just want security and safety for my children. That is all.”
Sara lies now under the shade of a tree in Lille’s cemetery. A girl born in Belgium, to Iraqi parents, who grew up in Sweden and was bound for Britain – now laid to rest in northern France.
It is an awful reminder that there is nothing simple about the challenge of migration. The questions are profound, and the tentacles spread far. And it is also a dire warning – this has been a record year for crossings, and for deaths.
So far this year, I have already been to the funerals of two seven-year-old girls who died trying to cross the Channel on a small boat. There will, inevitably, be another tragedy. The only question is when.
World
Rishi Sunak faces calls for UK to follow Spain, Norway and Ireland in recognising Palestinian state
Rishi Sunak is facing calls for the UK to recognise the state of Palestine, on the day that Ireland, Spain and Norway officially do so.
The Scottish first minister and Scottish National Party (SNP) leader John Swinney has written to both the prime minister and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urging them to “do the right thing” and “immediately” recognise a Palestinian state.
He said the SNP would force a binding vote at Westminster after the general election if they failed to do so.
Mr Swinney said recognition would offer “hope” that a “durable political solution” was possible between Israel and Palestine.
“I am calling on the UK to follow the lead of Ireland, Norway and Spain by immediately recognising Palestine as a state – and if Rishi Sunak will not do it now, Keir Starmer must commit to doing so on his first day in Downing Street.”
The Palestinian ambassador to Ireland has also urged the UK government to recognise Palestine.
An Israeli soldier sits in a tank near the Israel-Gaza border. Pic: Reuters
Speaking to Sky News, Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid said: “The British have a very strong hand in the injustice that happened to the Palestinians, so I think it’s important that one of those countries that should recognise the right of Palestinian self-determination is the British government.”
Read more:
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Dr Abdalmajid referred to Britain’s involvement in the establishment of the state of Israel, including the 1917 Balfour Declaration, in which the British government of David Lloyd George announced its support for a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.
“Justice must prevail,” said the ambassador. “I think it’s very important for the British government to see this and try to correct what happened in 1917, and during the Mandate when they encouraged colonisation in Palestine.”
The trio of countries which today will start recognising the Palestinian state have faced the diplomatic wrath of Israel since the move was announced last week.
Their ambassadors have been formally reprimanded by Tel Aviv, and were filmed by Israeli media as they were asked to watch video footage from the 7 October Hamas attack, something the Irish government deems “unacceptable”.
The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, posted a video on X showing footage of Hamas militants interspersed with traditional Irish music, footage of Irish dancing and the slogan “Hamas: Thanks Ireland”.
Similar videos, tailored to Spain and Norway, were also posted.
A Palestinian boy sits on debris after an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah on 9 May. Pic: Reuters
Addressing the taoiseach, Mr Katz wrote: “Ireland, if your goal was to reward terrorism by declaring support for a Palestinian state, you’ve achieved it. [Irish Prime Minister] Simon Harris, Hamas thanks you for your service.”
It’s a point of view firmly rejected by the Irish. Speaking in Brussels with his counterparts from Spain and Norway, the Irish foreign minister Micheal Martin said: “Some have framed our decision to recognise the State of Palestine as a move to impose an outcome on the parties, or as somehow a reward for terror.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. We have recognised both the State of Israel and the State of Palestine precisely because we want to see a future of normalised relations between the two peoples.”
But members of Ireland’s small Jewish community are sceptical. Former justice minister Alan Shatter told Sky News the move was political theatre.
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“It’s about as relevant as New Zealand announcing that they now recognise that the government of the Republic of Ireland rules the entirety of the island of Ireland,” he said.
“Of course, that wouldn’t change the reality on the ground. And probably if that did happen, the Irish government would look askance and think everyone in New Zealand has gone mad.”
Others say they fear the move could fuel anti-semitism. Maurice Cohen, chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, said that “latent anti-semitism is now becoming blatant anti-semitism”.
“The experience [for Jews in Ireland] has always been ‘cead mile failte’ [‘a hundred thousand welcomes’]. There was an outstretched hand for us and for other people.
“But now we find, very simply, that that hand is curling into a fist and we don’t know where that is going.”
Palestinians in Ireland are expected to gather outside Leinster House, the home of the Irish parliament, today as speeches are made.
“This gives them hope,” said Dr Abdaljamid. “This gives them some light after this dark tunnel.
“The Palestinian people see that we are seen, we are heard by Ireland, by Spain, by the whole world actually who protest since the 7th of October. We are not alone in this world. I mean it’s very important.”
Just over two weeks ago, President Biden drew a clear red line for his “old friend Bibi”.
He told Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu not to go into Rafah.
“If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons… to deal with that problem,” he told CNN.
It was widely interpreted as the moment the American president was no longer going to be taken for a ride by Netanyahu.
But then Netanyahu’s soldiers entered Rafah. They avoided the city centre though, thus allowing Biden the wiggle room to say his line hadn’t been crossed.
Israeli forces instead took over the border crossing on the edge of the city, cutting off a key transit point to Egypt and with it, the ability to get aid in and injured people out.
Since then, Israeli military operations have continued daily but did not, the White House said, constitute “going into Rafah”.
Pushed on what appeared to be an increasingly elastic red line, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told us last week that there was “no mathematical formula” for working out when it had been crossed.
“What we’re going to be looking at is whether there is a lot of death and destruction from this operation or if it is more precise and proportional,” Sullivan said from the White House podium.
Then, on Sunday night, dozens of Palestinians were not just killed but burnt alive, decapitated, maimed in an attack on a displaced people’s camp on the edge of Rafah.
Fire rages following the Israeli strike. Pic: Reuters
Bushra Khalidi from Oxfam said of the scene: “There are no more words… we saw images of children blown to pieces, burnt to crisp, and I’m sorry to be graphic but that is what we saw.”
Gaza’s civilian casualties are either a “mistake”, or “a consequence of war”, or “Hamas’s fault”.
Often the civilian killings are seen by Netanyahu’s government and its supporters to be the proportional or acceptable cost of taking out Hamas commanders.
The justification is frequently packaged up as self-defence – despite stiff criticism from international bodies and eminent legal authorities.
This time, in Rafah, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that two Hamas commanders accused of carrying out attacks in the West Bank were killed, but “a technical failure” led to 40+ civilians being killed.
Palestinians look at the damage in Rafah. Pic: Reuters
Remember Jake Sullivan’s parameters set out last week? “Precise and proportional… a lot of death and destruction.”
Unquestionably there was horrific death and destruction on Sunday night. It seems mad even to have to point this fact out.
“Precise and proportional”? Well, it will take some considerable verbal acrobatics for President Biden to conclude that what happened in Rafah was either proportional or precise.
So watch the American president over the next 24 hours.
I suspect he will say that his red line has not been crossed. He will indicate that the strike, devastating though it was, did not constitute a red-line-crossing ground force smashing into Rafah.
Why? Because he would have to follow through on his threat to cut off military aid.
Read more:
Rafah is ‘hell on Earth’, warns UN agency head
The walls are closing in on Benjamin Netanyahu
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And if he did that, he would face an overwhelming chorus of opposition among politicians on Capitol Hill and key donors just months before the US election.
Congress incidentally is poised to invite Netanyahu to address a joint session.
As he has so many times before, President Biden thought his “old friend Bibi” would listen to him.
But the idea that Netanyahu is listening to anything President Biden is saying is stretching credibility to its limit.
World
Papua New Guinea: More than 2,000 people buried alive in landslide – as ‘major destruction’ hampers rescue efforts
More than 2,000 people have been buried by a massive landslide in northern Papua New Guinea, the country’s disaster agency has said.
The landslide levelled the mountainous Kaokalam village in Enga Province – about 370 miles (600km) northwest of the capital Port Moresby.
It hit the Pacific nation at around 3am local time on Friday (6pm on Thursday UK time), and the United Nations had earlier said it estimated 670 people had been killed. Local officials had initially put the number of dead at 100 or more.
The Papua New Guinea national disaster centre said the landslide had buried more than 2,000 people.
“The landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major destruction to buildings, food gardens and caused major impact on the economic lifeline of the country,” an official from the national disaster centre said in a letter to the United Nations.
Earlier, Serhan Aktoprak, head of the United Nations’ International Organisation for Migration mission on the island nation, said the figure of 670 deaths was based on calculations by local officials that more than 150 homes had been buried. The previous estimate was 60 homes.
“They are estimating that more than 670 people [are] under the soil at the moment,” he said.
However, Mr Aktoprak added: “Hopes to take the people out alive from the rubble have diminished now.”
More than 4,000 people were likely impacted by the disaster, humanitarian group CARE Australia said earlier.
It said the area was “a place of refuge for those displaced by [nearby] conflicts”.
Yambali was among the villages affected. Pic: Mohamud Omer/International Organisation for Migration via AP
Pic: AP
Pic: AP
The update comes as Australia said it was preparing to send aircraft and other equipment to help at the site of the landslide.
Papua New Guinea is Australia’s closest neighbour and Australia has been the most generous provider of foreign aid to its former colony, which became independent in 1975.
Poor weather and overnight rains in the South Pacific nation’s mountainous region have sparked fresh fears the rubble could become dangerously unstable.
China has said it will provide assistance for disaster relief and post-disaster reconstruction.
“We believe that the people of Papua New Guinea will be able to overcome difficulties and rebuild their homeland at an early date,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily news briefing.
Pic: AP
Pic: AP
The King said he and the Queen were “deeply shocked and saddened” to learn of the landslide “and the tragic loss of so many lives, homes and food gardens”.
In a statement he said: “I have witnessed at first-hand and have great admiration for, the extraordinary resilience of the peoples of Papua New Guinea and the Highlands. I have faith that your communities will come together to support the survivors and the recovery in these heartbreaking circumstances.
“My wife joins me in sending our most heartfelt condolences to the families and communities who have suffered so much as a result of this appallingly traumatic event. Papua New Guinea is very much in our special thoughts and prayers.”
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Search for survivors after deadly landslide
About six villages were affected by the landslide in the province’s Mulitaka region, according to Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Three bodies were pulled from an area where 50 to 60 homes were destroyed. Six people, including a child, were pulled from the rubble alive, the UN’s Papua New Guinea office said.
But hopes of finding more survivors were diminishing.
Pic: New Porgera Limited/Reuters
Pic: New Porgera Limited/Reuters
Villagers use heavy machinery to search through the landslide. Pic: AP
The landslide left debris up to eight metres deep across 200 sq km (77 sq miles), cutting off road access, which was making relief efforts difficult. Helicopters were the only way to reach the area.
Survivors searched through tonnes of earth and rubble by hand looking for missing relatives while a first emergency convoy delivered food, water and other provisions on Saturday.
In February, at least 26 men were killed in Enga Province in an ambush amid tribal violence that prompted Prime Minister James Marape to give arrest powers to the country’s military.
Mr Marape has said disaster officials, the defence force and the department of works and highways were assisting with relief and recovery efforts.
A damaged house after the landslide. Pic: Reuters
Locals carry their belongings away from the scene of the landslide. Pic: Reuters
Papua New Guinea, with a population of around 10 million, is a diverse, developing nation of mostly subsistence farmers with 800 languages. There are few roads outside the larger cities.
It is located on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where much of the world’s earthquake and volcanic activity occurs.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
In March, the country was hit by a 6.9-magnitude earthquake.
The US and Australia are building closer defence ties with the strategically important nation, while China is also seeking closer security and economic ties.
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