2024-05-03 07:18:29
Ahmed Alhashimi is on the beach, shouting at the waves that come and go, beating and scratching his chest, giving in to the pain, the anger and the guilt, that won’t go away.
“I couldn’t protect her. I will never forgive myself. But the sea was my only choice,” he said.
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The week before, at dawn, on that same stretch of French coast south of Calais, the 41-year-old found himself trapped inside an inflatable boat screaming for help, at screaming at the bodies around him and begging for help. people who moved to give him room to curl up.
In this way he wanted to rescue his daughter Sara, 7 years old, from the suffocating darkness in which she was crushed.
“I just wanted to move that guy so I could pick up my baby,” Ahmed explains.
It refers to a young man who was part of a larger group who boarded at the last minute, when the boat was already far from the coast.
The man ignored him at first. Then he threatened him.
“That was like death itself. We saw people dying. I saw how those men behaved. They didn’t care who they stood, whether it was a child or someone’s skull, young or old. “People started suffocating,” says Ahmed bitterly.
Sara, 7, was suffocated when people pushed her on the boat in which she was trying to cross from France to the United Kingdom.
Although Ahmed is Iraqi, his daughter didn’t even know that country. He was born in Belgium and spent most of his short life in Sweden.
In total, five people died in the same incident, victims of what appeared to be an agonizing stampede in slow motion.
A BBC team saw what happened.
The smugglers took their passengers across the beach to a small boat using fireworks and ski sticks to defend themselves against a group of French police who tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent the group from boarding the boat.
The overcrowded inflatable boat goes to sea in the English Channel between France and the United Kingdom. (BBC NEWS).
“Help!”
When the boat moved out to sea, we heard someone shouting from on board. But in the darkness before dawn it was not known what was happening.
At dawn, the police were already moving from the shore along with an alleged human trafficker and some of the migrants who did not get on the boat.
Ahmed later confirmed that he was the man screaming for help, desperately pleading with those around him to save Sara’s life.
Ahmed’s wife, Nour AlSaeed, and his two other children, Rahaf, 13, and Hussam, 8, were also caught in the crowd, but could breathe.
“I’m a construction worker. I am strong. But even I could not reach my foot, caught in the crowd. No wonder my little girl couldn’t either. It was under our feet,” says Ahmed.
This was the family’s fourth attempt to cross from France to the UK since arriving in the area two months ago.
The police surprised them twice on the beach as they struggled to keep up with the rest of the migrants, who were running towards a smuggler’s boat.
Ahmed says that this time the traffickers – who charged US$1,600 per adult and half as much for each child – promised them that only 40 people would board their boat, but were surprised when another group of migrants arrived on the beach and they argued. on boarding.
Sara was calm at first. He had been holding his father’s hand as they walked from Wimereux train station the previous evening. Then, during the night, they hid in some dunes north of the city.
Shortly before 6 am, the group had already inflated their boat. The traffickers then ordered them to take him to the beach and ran with him towards the sea before being intercepted by the police.
Ahmed says that suddenly a police tear gas canister exploded near them and Sara started screaming.
When they boarded the boat, Ahmed held Sara on his shoulder for a moment, but then laid her down to help his other daughter, Rahaf, get on board.
That’s when he lost sight of Sara.
It was only later, when French rescue teams intercepted them at sea and disembarked some of the more than 100 people who had entered the boat, that Ahmed was finally able to recover his daughter’s body.
“I saw his head in the corner of the boat. It was all blue. She was already dead when we took her out. “I wasn’t breathing,” he explains between sobs.
Since then, French authorities have been caring for the family while they wait for Sara’s body to be buried.
Sara (right) with her brother Hussam and sister Rahaf. They had already tried to cross the English Channel three times.
“It was my only choice”
Ahmed says he is aware of the heavy criticism he has faced on social media from people who accuse him of needlessly putting his family at risk. He seems torn between accepting such allegations and rejecting them.
“I will not forgive myself. But the sea was his only choice. Everything that happened was against my will. I ran out of options. People blame me and say, ‘How did you put your daughters in danger?’ But I’ve been in Europe for 14 years and I’ve been rejected,” says Ahmed, describing years of failed attempts to gain residency in the European Union after fleeing Iraq following threats from militia groups that he said.
Belgium apparently denied him asylum on the grounds that Basra, his hometown in Iraq, was classified as a safe zone.
He says that his children have spent the past seven years with a relative in Sweden, but he was recently informed that they would be deported, along with him, to Iraq.
“If I had known there was a 1% chance of staying with the children in Belgium, France, Sweden or Finland, I would have stayed there. All I wanted for my children was for them to go to school. I don’t need any kind of social assistance. My wife and I can work. I just wanted to protect them, their youth and their dignity,” he continues.
“If people were in my place, what would they do? Those who (criticized me) did not suffer what I suffered. This was my last resort,” he says, seeking solidarity and support for the British government.
The last drawing Sara made for her family before her fourth attempt to reach England.
Eva Jonsson, Sara’s teacher in Uddevalla, Sweden, describes the girl as “kind and good” in a video message sent to the BBC.
“I had a lot of friends at school. They played together all the time… In February we found out she would be deported and it would be quick. They informed us two days in advance,” he explains.
After he died, the class gathered in a circle and observed a moment of silence.
“It’s so sad that this happens to such a nice family. “I taught (other) children from this family and the deportation surprised me,” says the teacher.
“Sara’s photo is still in front of us and we will keep it here for as long as the children want.”
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