Hear
Ahmed Alhashimi is on the beach, shouting at the waves that come and go, hitting and scratching his chest, giving in to the pain, anger and guilt, which do not go away. “I couldn’t protect her. I will never forgive myself. But the sea was the only option she had,” she sobs.
The previous week, at dawn, on that same stretch of the French coast south of Calais, the 41-year-old man found himself trapped inside an inflatable boat while screaming for help, lashing out at the bodies around him and begging for help. people who moved to give him space to crouch.
He wanted to rescue his daughter Sara, seven years old, from the suffocating darkness in which she had been crushed. “I just wanted that man to move so I could pick up my baby,” explains Ahmed.
It refers to a young man who was part of a larger group that boarded at the last minute, when the boat was already far from the coast. The man first ignored him. Then he threatened him.
“That was like death itself. We saw people die. I saw how those men behaved. They didn’t care who they stepped on, whether it was a child or someone’s head, young or old. People began to suffocate,” Ahmed says bitterly.
Although Ahmed is Iraqi, his daughter did not even know that country. He was born in Belgium and spent most of his short life in Sweden. Total, five people died in the same incident, victims of what must have seemed like an agonizing stampede in slow motion. A BBC team witnessed what happened.
The smugglers escorted their passengers across the beach to a small boat while using fireworks and wielding sticks to protect themselves from a group of French police who were trying, unsuccessfully, to prevent the group from boarding the boat.
“Aid!”. As the ship moved out to sea, we heard someone scream weakly from on board. But in the pre-dawn gloom it was impossible to know what was happening.
At dawn, the police were already moving away 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 the man screaming for help was him, 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, eight, were also trapped among the people, but could breathe.
“I am a construction worker. I’m strong. But I couldn’t even get my leg out, caught in the crowd. No wonder my little girl couldn’t either. She 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. Police surprised them twice on the beach as they struggled to keep up with the rest of the migrants, who were running toward a smuggler’s boat.
Ahmed says that this time, the traffickers – who charged US$1,600 per adult and half for each child – they had been promised that only 40 people would board their boat, but were surprised when another group of migrants appeared on the beach and insisted on getting on board.
Sara was calm at first. She was holding her father’s hand as they walked from Wimereux train station the previous afternoon. Then, during the night, they hid in some dunes north of the city.
Shortly before 6 a.m., the group had already inflated their boat. The traffickers then ordered them to take him to the beach and run with him towards the sea before the police intercepted them.
Ahmed says that, suddenly, a tear gas canister The police explosion exploded near them and Sara began to scream.
Once they boarded the boat, Ahmed held Sara on his shoulders for about a minute, but then set her down to help his other daughter, Rahaf, get on board.
It was then that He lost sight of Sara. Only later, when French rescue teams intercepted them at sea and disembarked some of the more than 100 people crammed into the boat, was Ahmed finally able to reach 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. “She wasn’t breathing,” she explains between sobs. Since then, French authorities have been caring for the family while they wait to bury Sara’s body.
Ahmed says he is aware of the heavy criticism on social media he has faced from people who accuse him of putting his family at unnecessary risk. He appears to be torn between accepting and rejecting such accusations.
“I will never forgive myself. But the sea was the only option she had. Everything that happened was against my will. I ran out of options. People blame me and say, ‘How did you risk your daughters?’ But I have been in Europe for 14 years and I have been rejected,” Ahmed says, detailing years of failed attempts to secure residency in the European Union after fleeing Iraq following what he described as threats from militia groups.
Apparently, Belgium denied him asylum arguing that Basra, his hometown in Iraq, was classified as a safe zone. He says that his children spent the last seven years with a relative in Sweden, but that he was recently informed that they would be deported, along with him, to Iraq.
“If I knew there was a 1% chance of staying with the children in Belgium, France, Sweden or Finland, I would stay there. The only thing I wanted for my children was for them to go to school. I don’t want any kind of social assistance. My wife and I can work. I just wanted to protect them, their childhood and their dignity,” she continues.
“If people were in my place, what would they do? Those who (criticize me) have not suffered what I have suffered. This was my last option,” he says, appealing to the British government for solidarity and support.
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 that she would be deported and that it would be quick. They notified us with two days in advance“, Explain.
After learning of his death, the class gathered in a circle and observed a minute of silence. “It is very unfortunate that this happens to such a nice family. “I have taught (other) children from this family and I was very surprised by the deportation,” says the teacher.
“We still have Sara’s photo in front of us and we will keep it here as long as the children want.”
