Real victims of Britain's migrant crisis - the innocent children killed by traffickers

Every year, desperate families brave the perilous crossing to the UK, paying unscrupulous smugglers large amounts of cash in the hopes of finding safety and a better way of life.

It's a decision no parent would make lightly, but bloody conflict, threats of persecution and unbearable poverty mean such families will often feel as though they have no choice. The gangs running the small boats are continuing to get rich, profiting off the misery and despair of others. A failed crossing means little to them. But all too often, it has fatal consequences for their passengers.

Beloved children have been lowered into dinghies, never to make the journey across the Channel, dying alongside their siblings or washing up alone, on faraway shores.

Tonight, ITV sheds light on the atrocities frightened families are being exposed to, and the harrowing price they pay, in documentary, Inside Britain's Asylum Crisis.

Here, the Mirrorexplores the story of the real victims, the children whose lives have been stolen by channel traffickers...

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Sara Alhashimi

Little Sara Alhashimi was just seven years old when she was crushed to death on a small boat. She and her family had been desperately trying to cross the Channel to England after being informed they would be deported to Iraq, despite having made a life for themselves in Europe.

Speaking with the BBC in May 2024, Sara's father, Ahmed Alhashimi, told of how he'd left the Iraqi city of Basra 14 years before, after he was threatened by militia. Although Sara had been born in Belgium and had also lived in Sweden, the family's applications for asylum in EU countries had been unsuccessful.

Ahmed explained: "If I knew there was a 1 percent 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."

According to Ahmed, the smugglers had reassured him that for €1,500 (£1,280) per adult, and half price per child, there would be just 40 people aboard the boat. Disaster struck when a group of men rushed onboard as the inflatable dinghy pulled away from the coast of Wimereux, a seaside town south of Calais. Five people died in the commotion, including Sara.

Ahmed, his wife Nour AlSaeed, and their older children, Rahaf and Hussam, became jammed in the crush of bodies, unable to reach the little girl. In his desperation, Ahmed begged people to move, and even punched a man as he frantically tried to get to Sara, but it was to no avail.

Recalling the harrowing scenes that unfolded, Ahmed remembered: "That time was like death itself. We saw people dying. I saw how those men were behaving. They didn't care who they were stepping on – a child, or someone's head, young or old. People started to suffocate. I could not protect her. I will never forgive myself. But the sea was the only choice I had."

Finally, after French rescuers got to the dinghy and unloaded some of the 112 passengers, Ahmed was able to get to his daughter's body, which lay, lifeless and blue, in the corner of the boat.

Anita, Armin, and Artin

In October 2020, a devastating story came to light about a family that perished while trying to cross the Channel in high winds. Rasul Iran Nezhad and his wife, Shiva Mohammad Panahi, both 35, were Iranian Kurds from the city of Sardasht, looking to escape a life of hardship.

After making two unsuccessful attempts to reach British shores, according to The Guardian, the couple paid smugglers thousands of euros in the hope of starting a new life in the UK with their three young children, Anita, nine, and Armin, six, and 15-month-old Artin.

The family had made the long journey from Iran into Turkey before continuing on through Europe to France. Tragically, at this final crucial point, their overloaded boat capsized, plunging the passengers into the water, not far from the historic harbour city of Dunkirk. At the time, Rasul, Shiva, Anita and Armin were all confirmed dead, while the youngest child, Artin, was unaccounted for.

Sadly, any lingering hopes that Artin had been pulled from the waters alive were dashed in June 2021, when Norwegian investigators confirmed that a body recovered on New Year's Day close to Karmoy, on the country's southwest coast.

The tiny child was still wearing the jacket he was photographed in, shortly before he drowned some 900 miles away. His body was flown back to relatives in Iran for burial.

A family friend from Calais, known only as Ali, spoke of how he'd met the family about one month before their fatal journey, and had spoken about the perils of making the crossing with Shiva. He shared: "Shiva and I were talking about the issues with going to England," he said. "I told her: 'This is way too dangerous, you have children. Do you think they can survive in the water if, God forbid, something happens?' And she said, 'It's OK, we will do it. Everyone is going there, it's not a problem.'"

According to Ali, the family had paid a smuggler approximately €5,000 (£4,400) to €6,000 to take them aboard the boat. 

He continued: "Shiva told me they didn't have enough money to pay the smuggler, and she asked her parents and parents-in-law. They sold gold and valuables for them to pay the smugglers, and they prepared the money."

As explained by Ali, those at the camp had confronted the smuggler who organised this crossing after the tragic sinking. He said: “They asked him: ‘What did you do?’” Ali said. “He only said: ‘They did a good try, they had a good chance.’ These people [smugglers] are so cruel and without heart.”

Maryam Bahez

In October 2024, baby Maryam Bahez, who was just 40 days old, died when she slipped from her dad's hands on a boat crammed with around 60 people.

Maryam's family had fled Iraq, and it's believed she was born on their desperate journey through Europe. In a bid to keep the tiny child dry out at sea, her family had wrapped her in a bin bag, but it was not nearly enough to protect her.

They'd scarcely made it 100 metres from the coast when the packed dinghy began to flood with water. Opening up in a heartbreaking interview with Sky News, Maryam's father, Aras, shared: "Our feet were in the water, we all told the [driver] to please turn around, but he did not listen to anyone and just sailed.

"Then the water got to my waist, my trousers were submerged, then the dinghy burst, and I don't know how it happened, but everyone fell on top of each other, and on top of me and my little girl. She went into the water, but I brought her up. Then a few others fell on us, and then she went into the water and I brought her up for the second time, then others fell on me, and then she slipped from my hand, and fell in the water the third time, and I lost her."

Even after his ordeal, Aras remains determined to bring his wife and two living children over to the UK, asserting, "I will never try the sea route again, but I have come with the aim of getting to Britain so my children would have a future. So I can feed my children, I want to work and raise my children like any other children."

Rola Al Mayali

Seven-year-old Rola Al Mayali died in March of this year, alongside some 15 other migrants, after the makeshift boat she and her Iraqi family had been travelling in capsized in northern France's Aa canal. They hadn't even reached the North Sea.

As reported by Le Monde, Maryam's parents, Mohamed and Nour, had paid smugglers €6,000 (£5,250) to reach the UK with Rola and her three brothers, Muhaimen, 14, Hassan, 10, and Moamel, eight. They did not realise when they handed the payment over that 20 passengers, including 10 children, would be packed onto a boat less than five metres in length.

Speaking at his daughter's funeral, which was attended by just under 100 people, Mohamed said: "We lived for three years and five months in Greece and two years in Germany, in Oldenburg [Lower Saxony]. Each time, our asylum applications were rejected, and we were afraid of being deported back to Iraq. If Germany had given us papers, my daughter wouldn't have died."

Obada Abd Rabbo

In January 2024, 14-year-old Obada Abd Rabbo died alongside his brother Ayser while trying to cross the English Channel. The siblings, who were from Syria, drowned just a few metres away from the French coast after the inflatable boat they were on was rushed by a group of some 60 people.

Obada, who had previously expressed fears over his inability to swim, was out of his depth, and his frantic screams for help were sadly not enough to save him.

Speaking with the BBC, Obada’s elder brother, Nada, who successfully made the crossing in 2022, expressed guilt about encouraging his siblings to follow suit. Their parents, Abu and Um Ayesa,r had also planned to make the journey to the UK, where Mr Ayesar hoped to receive medical treatment for his health concerns.

A former law student at Damascus University, Nada made the decision to travel to England so as to avoid the conflict and army conscription. He said: "It was not safe. You go to the army and stay 10 years. You need to kill, or you die. We don’t want this."

He advised his brothers that they too could "make a new life here" as students, given their young age. At school in the family's home city of Daraa, Obada was known to have been "very clever" and it was hoped that he might even have grown up to be a doctor.

Like many teenagers, Obada was also a huge football fans, and had held a poignant wish of watching Manchester City in action once he made it to the UK.

Inside Britain's Asylum Crisis airs this evening (September 25) at 8:30 pm on ITV1.

Do you have a story to share? Email me at julia.banim@reachplc.com

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