ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The burial ceremony for two Kurdish children from Sulaimani who died after their inflatable boat sank off the Turkish coast while they were attempting to cross into Greece took place in Sulaimani on Wednesday, while the body of a third child remains missing at sea.

On October 14, three Kurdish children from a Sulaimani family lost their lives after their inflatable boat sank off Turkey's northwestern Edirne province while attempting to cross into Greece.

Around nine Kurdish migrants were on board the rubber dinghy, which reportedly collided with a submerged tree stump and deflated before reaching Greek waters, leaving all passengers in the water, according to Ranj Pshdary, a Kurdish refugee rights activist.

One child from the same family remains missing at sea, while two siblings, who were taken to a hospital in the Turkish city of Edirne while in critical condition, died in the early hours of the following day.

Following the repatriation of the bodies of the two children, Mela, 5, and Hariad, 10, they were transported directly from Erbil International Airport to Sulaimani ahead of the burial ceremony, The New Region’s correspondent in Sulaimani said.

Sulaimani held burial ceremonies on Wednesday for two Kurdish children who died after their inflatable boat sank off the Turkish coast while they were attempting to cross into Greece, while the body of a third child remains missing at sea. The aunt of Mela, 5, and Hariad, 10, urged anyone thinking of making the treacherous voyage, "Do not go."

— The New Region (@thenewregion) October 28, 2026

Speaking to The New Region, the children’s aunt confirmed that the body of the family’s eldest child remains missing.

“That route is not safe at all,” the aunt said, urging other prospective migrants, “Do not go.”

“At first they told us they would cross by land, not by water, but that wasn’t true,” she said.

Thousands of migrants illegally try to cross the deadly Aegean Sea every year in search of a better life in Europe and the United Kingdom, with a large number of them coming from the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdish areas of Syria, Iran, and Turkey.

According to data gathered by Lutka, around 31,500 people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region migrated abroad in 2025, with at least 10 losing their lives during the perilous journeys and two missing, raising the total number of Iraqi migrants to around 800,000 since 2015.

In November, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said more than 1,000 people had died trying to reach Europe through the Central Mediterranean migration route in 2025.