Father ‘will never forgive himself’ after seeing daughter, 7, die on migrant boat

Sara Alhashimi died as her family tried to cross the Channel to the UK

The father of a seven-year-old girl who died on a small boat in the Channel has said it was his family’s fourth attempt of making a crossing in two months.

In an emotional interview with the BBC, Ahmed Alhashimi, 41, described his daughter’s “suffocating” last moments stuck at the bottom of an inflatable boat off the French coast of Calais

Mr Alhashimi said he was unable to save his daughter, Sara, who was crushed underneath the feet of others on the dinghy.

He told the BBC: “I could not protect her. I will never forgive myself. But the sea was the only choice I had. If people were in my place, what would they do? Those who (criticise me) haven’t suffered what I’ve suffered. This was my last option.”

Mr Alhashimi said a group of Sudanese men had crowded the boat that he and his family were on as it drifted out to sea.

He said: “I just wanted him to move so I could pull my baby up. That time was like death itself. We saw people dying. I saw how those men were behaving. They didn’t care whom they were stepping on – a child, or someone’s head, young or old. People started to suffocate.”

Sara, right, with her brother Hussam, left, and sister Rahaf

Five people died in the incident in which French police had failed to stop the large group of men boarding the small boat at the last minute.

Mr Alhashimi, who is from Iraq, said his wife Nour AlSaeed, and their two other children, Rahaf, 13, and Hussam, eight, were also trapped, but still able to breathe.

He said: “I’m a construction worker. I’m strong. But I couldn’t pull my leg out. No wonder my little girl couldn’t either. She was under our feet.”

It had been the family’s fourth attempt at crossing the Channel since they arrived in Calais two months earlier with French police having caught them twice before.

The father said smugglers had charged them €1,500 (£1,280) per adult, and €760 (£640) for each child, promising that just 40 people would be aboard the boat.

The migrants had inflated their boat at around 6am and carried it to shore when police spotted the group and fired tear gas towards them as they clambered onboard.

But while Mr Alhashimi was helping his daughter Rahaf get onboard he lost sight of Sara. She suffocated to death while trapped under the bodies of other migrants on the boat.

Mr Alhashimi says a group of Sudanese men crowded the boat his family were in leaving his daughter trapped under the bodies of others

When French rescuers later offloaded more than 100 people who were crammed onto the inflatable Mr Alhashimi was finally able to reach his daughter’s body.

He said: “I saw her head in the corner of the boat. She was all blue. She was dead when we pulled her out. She wasn’t breathing.

“I will never forgive myself. But the sea was the only choice I had. Everything that happened was against my will. I ran out of options. People blame me and say, ‘How could I risk my daughters?’ But I’ve spent 14 years in Europe and have been rejected.”

Mr Alhashimi claimed he had attempted to gain EU residency for years after fleeing Iraq but that he had been denied residency because his hometown in Iraq, Basra, was classified as safe.

He said his children had lived in Sweden for seven years but claimed he had been told they were due to be deported to Iraq.

He added: “If I knew there was a one per cent chance that I could keep the kids in Belgium or France or Sweden or Finland I would keep them there. All I wanted was for my kids to go to school. I didn’t want any assistance. My wife and I can work. I just wanted to protect them and their childhoods and their dignity.”

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