ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Erbil security forces (Asayish) said Tuesday they had arrested a suspected smuggler accused of transporting a family from Sulaimani to Turkey, where their inflatable boat sank as they attempted to cross into Greece, killing three of their children.

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.

“After investigations and gathering information, the identity of the smuggler, referred to as R. A. M., was uncovered; upon his return to the Kurdistan Region, and by decision of the respected Erbil Asayish investigating judge, our forces arrested him,” Asayish said in a statement.

Around nine Kurdish migrants were aboard 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.

A burial ceremony for two of the children, Mela, 5, and Hariad, 10, was held in Sulaimani on Wednesday after their bodies were repatriated. One child from the same family remains missing at sea.

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.