ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The bodies of three Kurdish migrants who suffocated in the back of a truck in Austria because it had no air vents and was wired shut were returned to the Kurdistan region via the Erbil International Airport Wednesday.

Twenty-one Kurdish nationals were among the 71 migrants who suffocated in the truck and 15 of their bodies have so far been returned to the Kurdistan region, according to a statement by Iraq’s ministry of immigration, which added that “until now, 50 Iraqis have died on their way to European countries.”

Following the suffocation of the 71 migrants, through DNA testing it turned out that 21 of the suffocated migrants were from the Kurdistan region.

The Kurdistan region’s foreign relations directorate, with the help of the KRG’s immigration ministry, has repatriated 15 dead migrants who died in the truck, one of whom was from Erbil, four from Sulaimani, two from Duhok, one from Kirkuk and four from the Garmian bloc.

“Three Yezidi Kurds were also among the suffocated migrants in the back of the truck,” according to a Rudaw reporter.

Rudaw