World News
Families of two men who died in English Channel protest French detention of bodies
The relatives of Jasmeet Wadhwa and Nagmeldin Adam gathered outside a Dunkirk courthouse after five months of waiting for the bodies to be released.
The short version
- Relatives of two men who died during an April Channel crossing attempt protested outside a courthouse in Dunkirk, France, demanding the release of their bodies.
- Jasmeet Wadhwa, 32, and Nagmeldin Adam, 33, died on April 1 when their dinghy got into trouble; eight others, including Wadhwa's mother, were rescued.
- Wadhwa's mother later had her legal application to enter the UK rejected by the Home Office due to what officials termed an unsatisfactory identity document.
Key facts
- Jasmeet Wadhwa, 32, and Nagmeldin Adam, 33, died while trying to cross the English Channel in a dinghy on April 1.[The Guardian]
- Family members of both men staged a demonstration on Monday outside the Dunkirk courthouse to protest the French authorities holding the bodies for five months.[The Guardian]
- Wadhwa's mother, Harbans Kaur Wadhwa, survived the April crossing and applied to enter the UK under the "one in, one out" scheme, but the British Home Office rejected her application over an unsatisfactory identity document.[The Guardian]
- At least 16 people have died attempting to cross the Channel from France to the UK so far this year.[The Guardian]
What remains uncertain
- Neither the French interior ministry nor the police unit holding the bodies responded to inquiries regarding the reason for the five-month delay.[The Guardian]