'I could not protect her': A dad mourns his child killed in the Channel - BBC News

Ahmed Alhashimi spoke to the BBC after daughter Sara died when the family tried to make it to the UK in a small boat last week.

9 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsCalais migrant crisisImage caption, Seven-year-old Sara suffocated as people pushed on to a boat heading across the English ChannelBy Andrew HardingParis correspondent, CalaisAhmed Alhashimi stood on the beach, howling at the retreating waves, beating and clawing at his own chest, and surrendering to the grief and rage and guilt that would not go away.

"I could not protect her. I will never forgive myself. But the sea was the only choice I had," he sobbed.

A week earlier, before dawn, on the same stretch of French coastline south of Calais, the 41-year-old had found himself wedged tightly inside an inflatable boat, screaming for help, lashing out at the bodies around him, begging people to move, to give him space, to let him reach down and rescue his seven-year-old daughter, Sara, from the suffocating darkness into which she'd been crushed.

"I just wanted him to move so I could pull my baby up," Ahmed explained, of the young Sudanese man who had been part of a larger group that had crowded on board at the last moment, as the boat had drifted away from the shore. But the man had first ignored him, then threatened him.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68930088

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