Dad of baby girl who died in English Channel says she slipped from his hands into water as he fought to hold on to her
THE DAD of a baby girl who died in English Channel says she slipped from his hands into the water as he fought to hold on to her.
Maryam Bahez was just 40 days old when she drowned in the Channel on Thursday night.
Her family had travelled from Iraqi Kurdistan through Europe in the hope of reaching Britain.
Maryam's parents and their two older sons boarded a dinghy with her in Wissant on France's Channel coast on Thursday night.
They wrapped the baby in a black binbag in a bid to keep her dry - but the dinghy almost immediately took on water.
Maryam's father Aras told : "Our feet were in the water, we all told the driver to please turn around - but he did not listen."
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The water rose to waist level and the dinghy burst - sparking a desperate struggle for survival.
Aras said: "Everyone fell on top of each other, and on top of me and my little girl.
"Others fell on me and then she slipped from my hand, and fell in the water the third time, and I lost her."
The French coastguard scrambled several boats and a helicopter - rescuing 65 people from the sea or the burst dinghy.
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But baby Maryam was found in the Channel and later pronounced dead.
Aras said he will never take his family onto a Channel dinghy again - but still hopes to give his children a better future in Britain.
He said he wants to work to feed his family and raise them "like any other children".
More than 50 people are known to have been killed while crossing the Channel so far this year - the highest number ever.
Around 26,000 people have successfully crossed the Channel this year, according to Home Office figures.