ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The body of a one-year-old Kurdish boy who drowned in the English Channel last October has been found more than 900 kilometres away in Norway.
On Monday, Norwegian police said Artin's body was found near Karmoy on New Year's Day. Artin was identified through DNA testing, the BBC reported.
Artin and his family, from Iran's Sardasht area, were trying to reach the United Kingdom. The family, father Rasul Iran Nejad, mother Shiva Mohammad Panahi, and their three children, Anita, 9, Armin, 6, and Artin, 15 months, started their journey in late May. They sold their house and furniture and borrowed money to pay smugglers along the way, making the perilous journey to the French port of Calais.
The boat they were in capsized off the French coast on October 27, throwing the nearly two dozen migrants onboard into the sea.
A survivor of the tragedy told Rudaw last year that the father, Iran Nejad, called for help to find his family. "He took a breath, went under the boat, but came up again. He was tired, but he dived again and went under the boat. Then after a while his body appeared, floating next to us. I saw it with my own eyes. He was exhasuted and died for his children."
The bodies of all but Artin, who was still missing, were laid to rest in Sardasht in November.
The family has been informed and Artin's body will be flown back to Iran to be buried.
