People on the capsized Channel migrant boat held each others' hands to avoid drowning, survivor says

A RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat carrying migrants approaches a beach in Dungeness on the south-east coast of England on November 24, 2021, after they are picked up crossing the English Channel. — A lifeboat carrying migrants on November 24, 2021.
Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images

A survivor of the boat which capsized in the Channel last week said people held hands to avoid drowning.
At least 31 migrants attempting to reach the United Kingdom reportedly died in the tragedy.
Survivor Mohammed Shekha Ahmad said victims treaded water for hours, but gave up after the sun rose.

A man who survived after a boat carrying migrants across the English Channel last week capsized — killing dozens — has described how many victims held hands in the water to avoid drowning for hours before they gave up and died.

Mohammed Shekha Ahmad, who is 21, was on the boat traveling to England last week when it deflated then capsized.

He is one of only two reported survivors from the tragedy, which has claimed at least 31 lives — the largest loss of life in the Channel since records started being kept in 2014, the Washington Post reported.

He told Iraqi news agency Rudaw in comments reported by Sky News that he and dozens of other migrants held hands in the cold water "in order not to sink or drown." He said that dozens of them survived for hours in the water but said people eventually gave up.

"We started to hold each other's hold hands," he said. "Each person was holding hands with the person next to them in order not to sink or drown. As the sun rose early in the morning, people couldn't take it anymore and they all gave up on their lives."

Ahmad told Rudaw via Sky News that 33 migrants climbed onto the boat in France on the evening of November 24, but said a faulty pump quickly made the boat fill with water. He said that people aboard the boat attempted to re-inflate the boat while others pumped water out of it, but their efforts were futile and the boat soon capsized, throwing its passengers into the water.

The second survivor of the incident, Muhammad Isa Omar, said that attempts by passengers to contact the British and French authorities were ignored.

"No one came," he told Rudaw via Sky News.

Omar, who comes from Somalia, also said he has been partially paralyzed from trying to swim for 10 hours.

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