Sara, seven, died in an overcrowded dinghy...now the people smuggling gang boss is unmasked
‘I couldn’t help Sara...I will never forgive myself’ By Robert Kellaway
A RUTHLESS smuggler behind the death of a seven-year-old girl who suffocated on an overcrowded inflatable migrant boat has been tracked down.
Iraqi gang boss Rebwar Abas Zangana, who is nicknamed “The Mountain”, masterminded the tragic Channel crossing in which the girl called Sara and four others died.
Zangana, 39, charges desperate people £1,250 for a place on one of his death-trap boats and even claims he can offer armed guards.
But, confronted in Luxembourg by a BBC investigative team, who showed him a photo of Sara, Zanganga denied being involved.
Andrew Harding, who led the BBC team, told him: “We know who you are, you are a smuggler. In April of this year you organised a boat on which this girl, seven years old, lost her life.”
Zangana shrugged at the picture of Sara and said: No. No, it’s not me.”
Mr Harding said: “You are still in business. You are still smuggling people across the Channel. We know 100% that you are a smuggler.You are responsible for the death of this seven-year-old. You put her on a boat, you took money from her parents. She and four other people died.”
The people trafficker, also known as “Jabal”, replied: “It’s not me, brother. I don’t know anything. What’s your problem?”
He continued to deny his involvement before catching a tram. It comes as French officials are understood to be issuing an arrest warrant in connection with a judicial inquiry into the April 23 crossing.
A source in Boulogne said: “Anyone who is provably linked to the arrangement of this crossing faces prosecution. The extradition of suspects from one European country to another is routine.”
But a spokesman for Luxembourg prosecutors said he was “not aware” of any immediate attempts to apprehend Zangana in the country.
He said: “There is no arrest warrant for the moment”, indicating nobody had been aware of Zanga being in Luxembourg.
Sara was among more than 100 migrants crammed on to a boat Zangana had organised at Wimereux, south of Calais.
Her father, Ahmed Alhashimi, Sara’s sister Rahaf, 12, and her brother Hussam, nine, also got on board but the children began getting crushed as they were trapped beneath the weight of bodies.
Ahmed, 41, managed to drag Rahaf and Hussam clear but was unable to save Sara.
The distraught dad said: “I couldn’t protect her. I couldn’t help her. I will never forgive myself.”
Ahmed fled Basra, Iraq, 14 years ago to claim asylum in Belgium with his wife Nour. His three children were born in Europe. But the family faced deportation this year because Basra is now considered a safe destination.
Ahmed vowed to bring his family to the UK and bought places aboard the boat from Zangana’s gang.
April 23 was the fourth time the family had tried to cross the Channel since they arrived in the area two months ago.
The surviving members of are currently staying at a temporary hostel for migrants near Lille, France.
During their own investigation into the crossing deaths, French police showed Ahmed photos of several suspected smugglers.
He said: “These people are greedy. They care only about money. I hope they will face justice. All of them. My daughter’s death must not be in vain.”
Despite the tragedy, the boat continued on its illegal journey to the UK, where two smugglers were arrested.
The BBC team gained Zangana’s phone number and copies of his Iraqi passport and tracked him from Calais, via Berlin, to Antwerp, Belgium.
The unmarried gang boss, apparently a devout Muslim, was understood to work with two partners in Belgium and for a more senior figure in Iraq.
The BBC caught up with him at a refugee centre in Luxembourg, where it believed he had fled to avoid arrest after the April deaths.
On June 18, 15 small boats brought 882 people to the UK – a record for a single day this year. It brings the total 2024 number reaching UK shores so far to well above 12,000.