Drowned baby from refugee family washed up in Norway | Inland

The family of 15-month-old Artin tried to reach the United Kingdom from France in October. The boy and four family members were killed when their boat sank. The baby’s body later washed ashore at the Norwegian town of Karmoy.

The discovery of the body puzzled Norwegian authorities. “We had no reports of missing babies in Norway. No family had contacted the police,” a police official told the British broadcaster. The clothing of the child suggested that the young victim was from abroad.

With the help of experts from the University Medical Center in Oslo, the baby was finally identified. Artin’s body is now being returned to Iran. His family is from western Sardasht, a city near the border with Iraq.

Artin and his family spent the last days of his life in a refugee camp in Dunkirk. There, according to a refugee, the baby was “famous” among his fellow sufferers. “He was a very happy baby,” said the man, who showed the BBC pictures of himself with the child. “People are sad. But what can we do? Nothing. Just cry.”

It is not the first time in the recent past that a young refugee child has lost his life in such a crossing. There was great outrage in 2015 about the death of the Syrian-Kurdish toddler Alan Kurdi, who washed ashore in Turkey. The father of the child received a visit from the Pope earlier this year.

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