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| Jsportnewsaddess.blogspot.com |
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| Jsportnewsaddess.blogspot.com |
A migrant who died while trying to cross the Channel wanted to help fellow Iranians, it can be revealed.
Mitra Mehrad, 31, fell from a dinghy off the coast of Kent in August and her body was later found in Dutch waters.
Police have now confirmed her identity with the help of the BBC.
Ms Mehrad, who had started a PhD in counselling psychology, wanted to help her compatriots by researching mental health issues among Iranians, her friends said.
A massive rescue effort was launched on 9 August when she and three others fell from a flimsy vessel ferrying 20 migrants - including four children - from northern France to the English coast in rough seas.
Two were pulled from the water, and 19 people - 14 from Iran and 5 from Iraq - were brought to Ramsgate by the RNLI but there was no sign of Ms Mehrad.
Helicopters from both British and Belgian coastguards joined the search, which continued at first light the following day.
Her body was eventually found by a guard ship at a wind farm more than 30 miles off the coast of the Netherlands on 18 August.
Dutch police were only able to positively ID her body this week after the BBC tracked down Ms Mehrad's father and helped to arrange a visit to their embassy in Tehran.
A DNA sample was flown back to a lab in The Netherlands and Ms Mehrad's father was given the news on Tuesday.
The student had left the family home in the south-western Khuzestan province to complete her psychology masters degree, graduating from Assumption University in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2017.
Parvathy Varma, a lecturer who supervised Ms Mehrad's thesis, said: "She was a highly motivated person. She wanted to work hard and get a PHD and be settled, that was her desire."
Her thesis looked at mental health issues in the Iranian population and she travelled back to Iran to conduct research, working in a hospital while she collected data on personality disorders.
"She wanted to help people in her homeland," Mrs Varma said. "She said the reason why she wanted to do her research area was because people have a lot of these personality issues [in Iran]."
She recalled that her student had told her: "I don't want to do any research that isn't useful to my people."
Ms Mehrad started her PhD but was unable to find a job in Bangkok that could support her studies, Mrs Varma said. At some point in early 2019, she left Thailand, eventually arriving in France.
Source: jsportnewsaddess.blogspot.com
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