Horror in the Channel: cruel mystery of the missing small boats migrants

Every night for the last 18 months, Mustafa Mina has woken suddenly, convinced he can hear a knock at the door, or a phone call coming in from his son, who is still missing after he boarded a dinghy in northern France bound for the UK.

“We need a graveyard to visit, a body to come home, anything,” said Mustafa, his eyes filling with tears, his grief still raw. “We don’t know if he is under a rock in the sea, or buried beneath the sand. Maybe he is alive. We just need answers.”

At around midnight on 24 November 2021, his 20-year-old son Zanyar messaged him to say that he was under the control of a smuggler, and that he would attempt, for the ninth time, to cross the Channel.

“He asked me not to tell his mother – she would be too upset to sleep,” Mustafa said by videolink from Iraqi Kurdistan. “He said ‘Once I reach the UK, you can let her know.’’’

The next day, Mustafa spoke to the smuggler on the phone, who confirmed Zanyar’s safe arrival and requested payment for the Channel crossing. His wife went out to tell the neighbours in their close-knit community, buying sweets for the village to celebrate.

When they heard about the incident in the Channel, Mustafa said it was “every parent’s worst nightmare”.

“The pain, it is indescribable,” he said. “We are from Iraq – there are families here whose loved ones have been missing for 30 years, who are still waiting for them to turn up, but it is different when it happens to you. We just need answers.”

The incident on 24 November 2021 was the worst maritime incident to have taken place in the Channel for more than 30 years. Twenty-seven people are known to have died, with five still missing and two survivors.

“It is almost impossible to describe the impact not knowing has on you,” said Zana Mohammed, whose brother Twana, also from Iraqi Kurdistan, went missing in the shipwreck. “If anyone has any information – it could be a fisherman, anyone, even a piece of his body, anything that will help us to find some relief. Dead or alive, we need to find out either way, to find peace.”

It was initially believed by officials that the tragedy occurred in French waters due to where the bodies and survivors were found, but call records and coordinates released later as part of a French investigation confirmed that the boat crossed into British waters at around 2.30am.

While the Conservative Party has consistently said it is focused on stopping the boats, the opposition has called for safe and legal routes to be established. Stephen Kinnock, shadow immigration minister, said the case for a full public inquiry into the mass drownings on 24 November 2021 was “compelling” and called on the government to launch a “fully independent and transparent investigation”.

Mustafa, Zana and three other families, whose loved ones also went missing that night, have taken legal action against the French authorities which lawyers say is “progressing as expected, with arrests made”.

By contrast, an investigation launched on the UK side, led by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), an independent body that works closely with HM Coastguard, is “thoroughly ineffective and inadequate”, said Maria Thomas, the lawyer representing the families of the victims.

“Whatever the outcome of the investigation, which we won’t know until the final report comes out, it will not be adequate,” said Thomas. “We don’t know who the MAIB has spoken to. It has all been conducted behind closed doors. It is beyond comprehension that there has been loss of life on this scale and that there’s even a question mark over whether a full public, statutory inquiry will be launched.”

A consultation period, during which the next of kin were invited to contribute, ended last week. The MAIB’s final report is due to be delivered by the end of the summer. This follows a two-page interim report, published in November 2022, when copy-and-paste letters were sent via WhatsApp to the family members, without mentioning the name of their loved one or addressing them personally.

The next-of-kin say they feel badly let down by the UK authorities and are calling for a full inquiry into what happened.

https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/uk-news/small-boats-drown-migrants-missing-b2366667.html

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