ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Sulaimani family has been searching for cousins Aram Idris and Mardin Jalal for the past three years after they went missing along the Greece-Turkey border while attempting to seek asylum.
The cousins, both 26, disappeared without a trace over three years ago, and their families are desperately seeking information about their fate.
“I am always thinking about him and miss him. I wish they would bring him back to me now. I wish someone would bring him back to us as a surprise by bringing him into the room,” Najiba Abdulrahman, Idris’s mother, told Rudaw.
Uncertainty has left the families devastated, and they are appealing to authorities and the public for help in determining the whereabouts of their sons.
Idris’s mother said they recently heard claims that the Turkish police handed the pair over to forces in Afrin, explaining that some people informed them that “they have been returned to some part of Syria, for a year now, and they have been handed over to some place around Afrin in Syria”
But she regretted the complete lack of confirmed information about the two.
Mardin’s father told Rudaw that the family has remained very worried since his disappearance.
“Until this moment, there is no trace, there is no news,” Jalal Sharif said. ”We are very anxious and worried. I mean, I don't know if my son is alive or dead.”
“I also appeal to the concerned parties, I appeal to the government and the head of government and the relevant parties who have connection with this migration and these migrants,” Sharif added. “We would thank the Kurdistan Regional Government if they could help us in this regard. I would greatly appreciate them."
Tens of thousands of people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region take on perilous routes out of the country towards Europe every year in hopes of escaping the endless crises in the country, including the lack of employment, political instability, and corruption.
