Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Forced on to death dinghy at gunpoint
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If they did not want to get on the boat, they may have been forced
SANGAR AHMED WHOSE FRIENDS MAY HAVE DIED
FROM and
ASYLUM seekers on the doomed Channel crossing boat could have been forced on at gunpoint when they realised it was overcrowded.
A friend of missing refugees made the claim as 21-year-old Iraqi Mariam Nouri Hamadameen became the first victim of the tragedy to be named last night.
It came after France banned Home Secretary Priti Patel from tomorrow’s emergency meeting in Calais about the disaster amid a political spat.
At the Grande-synth camp in Dunkirk, Sangar Ahmed, 33, said he feared friends Shakar Ali, 27, and Harem Pirot, 23, were among the 27 who died.
He said he spoke to them before they got on the boat in Calais on Wednesday.
Sangar, who grew up with Shakar and Harem in Ranya in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, said: “We have all heard stories about people being threatened with a gun unless they get on.
“I heard from them before the boat went out. The boat was a tiny thing with about 50 people on it. It was really overcrowded. If [my friends] did not want to get on they may have been forced to. It is really devastating.”
It is understood people smugglers do not get paid for last-minute withdrawals.
Sangar, who has lived in Manchester, still wants to return to the UK but is now unsure if he would take a boat.
He said: “Dunkirk is now like Iraq or Syria. These smugglers have guns and you cannot say anything about them.”
Victim Mariam was a student from northern Iraq who travelled to France in the hope of reaching her fiance in
Britain. Cousin Krmanj Ezzat said: “She was in the prime of her life. The whole family are in shock.”
Ms Patel, inset, was banned from the meeting with EU home affairs ministers after PM Boris Johnson tweeted a letter he sent to French President Emmanuel Macron with suggestions for curbing migrant Channel voyages. But Mr Macron hit back yesterday: “The ministers will work seriously to settle serious issues with serious people.” The PM’S spokesman replied: “This is an issue that we’re taking extremely seriously.” Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-symonds said the letter was “an enormous error”.