KRG to send delegation to assist survivors of deadly shipwreck near Italy

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Tuesday said it will dispatch a delegation to Italy to assist survivors who were on board a migrant ship that capsized off the coast of Italy several days ago, with dozens of Kurds having been on the vessel. 

Two shipwrecks off the coast of Italy have left more than a dozen migrants dead with concerns mounting over the fates of those missing. Most of the passengers were Kurds from the Kurdistan Region and Iran’s western Kurdish areas, as well as people from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, and Syria. 

“KRG Prime Minister H.E Masrour Barzani has ordered the Ministry of Interior … to expedite the return of the victims of the shipwreck off the coast of Italy. A delegation will visit the site and provide all necessary support to help the survivors,” the interior ministry’s Joint Crisis Coordination Center (JCC) said on X. 

Among the passengers were four Kurdish families - two from Erbil province and two from Sulaimani province’s Raparin administration - numbering at least 19 people. Eight members of a family from Erbil province have died in the waters, a relative told Rudaw’s Horvan Rafaat, saying he received the news from another relative who was onboard the vessel but was rescued. 

Rudaw also obtained the identities of eight other people from Raparin administration whose relatives say were in the boats. 

“Two of my cousins and two of their children were in the boat and their fate is unknown,” Haji Warte said from Raparin. 

Hassan Mala Nabi, another Raparin local, said his sister, brother-in-law, and their two daughters were in the boat. They are all missing. 

“My sister was pregnant and due to give birth next month,” Nabi lamented. 

On late Sunday, the Italian coastguard reported that authorities were alerted to the presence of a “half-sunken” boat around 120 nautical miles off the coast of Italy by a French pleasure boat. The French vessel transferred 12 surviving migrants, one of whom died after disembarking. 

Rescue efforts continue in search of survivors or bodies of the migrants, as around 60 people are presumed to be lost at sea.

In a separate incident, the bodies of 10 migrants were found off the Italian island of Lampedusa after their wooden boat capsized. German aid group RESQSHIP said that at least 61 people were on board the sunken boat, adding that their crew was able to evacuate 51 of them, two of whom were unconscious.

Tens of thousands of people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region take on perilous routes out of the country towards Europe on a yearly basis in hopes of escaping the endless crises in the country, including the lack of employment, political instability, and corruption.

Around 20,000 people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region migrated out of the country in 2023, with at least nine of them losing their lives on the dangerous and illegal smuggling routes, according to the Summit (Lutka) Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs.