She is one of the faces of the 27 migrants who died in the Channel on Wednesday.
Maryam Nuri Hama Amin, a 24-year-old Kurd, was trying to join her fiancé, legally present in the UK, when the boat she was in sank.
A tragedy at the heart of the meeting on the management of migrant flows to be held this Sunday in Calais.
According to the Sky news channel, Maryam did not warn him until the last moment that she was going to take a boat.
However, he followed his progress from Iraqi Kurdistan to the United Kingdom thanks to a GPS beacon.
“They both loved each other so much!
I've never seen people like them.
They had a lot of respect for each other, ”says a cousin.
The victim's younger brother remembers his last memory with his older brother.
“It was when we went to Erbil international airport
(Editor's note: the capital of Kurdistan)
.
I said goodbye to her and hugged her.
A video of this moment was broadcast by Sky news.
VIDEO: Maryam hugs her brother goodbye at Erbil airport before taking a flight on her journey to the UK.
They never saw her again: pic.twitter.com/nSgRbcqf0x
- Alistair Bunkall (@AliBunkallSKY) November 27, 2021
The journalist who relays these images accompanies them with a GPS location.
It corresponds to the place of the drama, between the French and English coasts.
The fact that the dot no longer moves and the beacon no longer emits worried Maryam's fiancé.
He was the one who warned the family.
Soran (Iraq), Saturday.
Two women meditate in Maryam Nuri Hama Amin's room.
AFP / Safin Hamed AFP or licensors
In an attempt to reach the United Kingdom, Maryam Nuri Hama Amin made a one-month journey with a stopover in Germany and another in France, explains BFMTV.
A cousin questioned by the channel calls into question the networks of smugglers: “Criminals!
They must be prosecuted!
"" "She was full of hopes and dreams.
She wanted to find her fiancé.
I'm sure some told him the crossing was safe.
"
Hundreds of people at the victim's home
In Iraqi Kurdistan, hundreds of people gathered at Maryam's home to offer their condolences to her relatives, AFP reports. Men, often dressed in traditional Kurdish clothes with baggy trousers, sat silently on plastic chairs after saying a prayer upon their arrival. As tradition dictates, they were served only water. Under a tent, women greeted the visitors, some of them seated on the floor on a large carpet. The victim's mother, collapsed, refused to speak to the media.
Shortly before she boarded, "I spoke to her, she was very happy, she was relaxed," says her father.
"She was in a hotel in France, we spoke until eight in the morning."
“We have no information on the smugglers.
Their promises turned out to be lies.
"