British family pleads with French authorities to release body of relative who died in Channel

Five Months After His Son Died in the Channel, a Grieving Mother Still Awaits His Body

Wanderstayfinder.com – For Harbans Kaur Wadhwa, the worst moment of her life came on 1 April, when she watched her 32-year-old son Jasmeet drown in the English Channel aboard a small dinghy. But the agony has not ended. Five months later, French authorities continue to hold his remains, and his family has launched a public campaign demanding their release.

The Wadhwa family fled Afghanistan in January after Taliban persecution forced them from their home. Over the following two months, they were moved under the control of people smugglers through a route that eventually deposited them in northern France in mid-March. What was meant to be a final leg of the journey — a short crossing of the Channel to reach relatives already settled in Britain — instead became fatal for Jasmeet.

A Shared Tragedy on the Water

Jasmeet was not alone on that dinghy. Nagmeldin Adam, a 33-year-old Sudanese man, also perished in the crossing. Adam’s own odyssey had stretched over years: prolonged detention in Libya, repeated failed attempts to cross the Mediterranean toward Europe, and finally a arrival in France in December 2025. Eight other passengers, including Harbans Kaur Wadhwa, were pulled from the water alive.

The Channel has claimed at least 16 lives so far this year as migrants attempt the crossing from France to Britain. The most recent fatality was reported on Saturday, occurring in a stretch of the French coastline not far from where the two men lost their lives in April. Each death underscores the lethal conditions of a sea route that many travellers have no realistic alternative to using.

Protest at the Dunkirk Courthouse

On Monday, relatives of both men gathered outside the courthouse in Dunkirk in a demonstration aimed squarely at French authorities’ refusal to hand over the bodies. Wadhwa’s family members made the journey from Britain specifically to take part. Such public protests by bereaved families are uncommon in Channel-crossing cases, where most victims are never publicly identified and their remains pass quietly through administrative channels.

Ivnit Singh Wadwa, Jasmeet’s cousin, had travelled from his home in west London to stand with the family at the protest. Speaking to reporters, he voiced the frustration that has built over half a year of bureaucratic silence:

“We shouldn’t have to fight to say goodbye. We are very upset with the French judicial system. Our family is waiting for Jasmeet’s body so we can lay him to rest.”

Neither the French interior ministry nor the police unit responsible for holding the two men’s remains responded to questions about why the release has been delayed by five months. The absence of an official explanation has deepened the family’s sense of being trapped in an opaque legal process.

The Mother’s Separate Battle: A Rejected Visa Application

While her son’s body remains in French custody, Harbans Kaur Wadhwa has faced her own administrative ordeal. After witnessing the drowning, she applied to the UK Home Office to enter Britain legally under the so-called “one in, one out” arrangement. Under that scheme, one person who has arrived in the UK on a small boat is returned to France in exchange for admitting another individual who has applied lawfully from northern France. She hoped to join family members in Britain who had offered to house and support her.

The Home Office turned down the application, stating that the identity document she submitted did not meet the required standard. Afghans typically carry an identity document called a Tazkira, which the department apparently deemed insufficient. The rejection left Harbans Kaur Wadhwa stranded in France, unable to reach her family and unable to retrieve her son’s body.

A Home Office spokesperson issued a statement expressing sorrow over the death in French waters:

“We are deeply saddened to hear about a death in French waters. Every death in the Channel is a tragedy and a stark reminder of the dangers posed by criminal gangs exploiting vulnerable people for profit. We will continue working relentlessly with the French and our partners overseas to prevent these perilous journeys.”

A Family’s Plea for a Final Goodbye

In a post on social media, the Wadhwa family addressed the public directly, stripping the matter of any political framing:

“A son. A brother. A life not forgotten. Help us bring Jasmeet back to his family. This is not about politics. It’s about a grieving mother being able to see her son one final time, it’s about a family being able to mourn.”

Their appeal highlights a gap that Channel-crossing deaths routinely expose: the distance between a family’s need for closure and the administrative machinery that governs what happens to bodies found in international waters. For the Wadhwas, five months of waiting has turned a single act of grief into a prolonged confrontation with two governments’ bureaucracies — one holding the body, the other denying the mother entry to the country where her family lives.