Shkoi Kurdistan-
The body of a Kurdish migrant who died trying to reach France in September was returned to the Kurdistan Region on Friday, the organization who repatriated his body told Rudaw.
The body of Bryar Bakhtiar, 34, was returned to his family in Said Sadiq on Friday from Italy by the Sulaimani-based Summit Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs (Lutka).
Bakhtiar had travelled to Turkey and then illegally to Italy in September, but his family were not aware of his death for more than two months.
“He told us that he was in Turkey mid-September,” his uncle, Zanyar Qadir told Rudaw English on Friday. “His accident happened on September 24, and we only found out over two months later when Italian police called us from his phone.”
“Bryar and a friend of his had hidden themselves under a truck in Italy to cross the border illegally. His friend got off at his destination, but Bryar wanted to go further and that is when his accident happened,” Lutka’s Hevar Jalal told Rudaw English. “The last time his family heard from him was on September 23.”
“We tried to find his whereabouts, but we failed because he did not have any form of identification on him,” Jalal said.
Italian police called Bakhtiar’s family from his phone in November to inform them of the accident.
“We contacted the Italian government and started preparing his paperwork, and returned him to his family today,” Jalal added.
According to statistics released by Lutka on December 18, 34,000 people migrated to Europe from across Iraq last year. Of this number, 18 died and 17 went missing.
“Considering lockdown and travel halts during 2020 due to the spread of coronavirus, the amount of people who had migrated in the first and last few months of the year are higher in compare to previous years,” read the report.
