The body of a 16-year-old refugee who died after being stabbed in Huddersfield is being returned to his parents in Syria after local people raised more than £15,000 for his repatriation.
Ahmad Mamdouh Al Ibrahim, described by his family as “a very nice boy” who wanted to be a doctor, was stabbed in the neck on the afternoon of 3 April while being shown around the town centre by his cousin.
It was only the second time he had been there, after arriving in Huddersfield two weeks earlier from an immigration centre in Wales, and spending Ramadan with his uncle’s family.
He was pictured a few days before his death smiling and laughing with his younger cousins during Eid al-Fitr in images shown to the Guardian by his uncle, who did not want to be named.
Alfie Franco, 20, of Kirkburton near Huddersfield, appeared in court two days after the killing charged with murder and was remanded in custody until a further hearing in May.
Ahmad’s funeral prayers were held at Huddersfield’s Omar mosque on Friday.
Maneer Siddique, who set up a fundraising campaign to help the family – who he did not previously know – in the aftermath of Ahmad’s death, estimated that about 500 people attended the service.
Ahmad’s body will be flown from Heathrow to Damascus on Tuesday evening, accompanied by two relatives. From there, they will travel to Ahmad’s family in the city of Homs, where in his younger years he had been injured by bomb shrapnel during the war he was fleeing when he came to the UK.
Ahmad knew no one in Huddersfield apart from his family, who he was living with, his uncle previously told the Guardian.
He said: “He was trying to make a friend, because he didn’t have friends here. I said to him, you have to go out into the town centre to know [where everything is], to know where you can go shopping … plus, you’re going to make friends.”
Cards left at the scene in the week after Ahmad was killed carried heartfelt messages addressed to “the lad I don’t know”, some of them signed simply from “a stranger” and the “heartbroken Huddersfield people”.
Siddique said he had been “absolutely overwhelmed” by the response from the people of Huddersfield, having initially only hoped to raise £2,000. The GoFundMe page to pay for the funeral and repatriation expenses surpassed £15,000 on Tuesday and continues to rise. “To generate that kind of money in such a short space of time is unreal,” he said.
He said people had also been dropping by the tailoring business he runs to make cash donations. One man brought in an envelope which Siddique passed on to Ahmad’s uncle. “He started counting the money and there was £500 in the envelope. He was in tears,” he said.
“He really wants to thank everyone. And I would like to also thank people personally because of the amount of money we’ve generated through people’s kindness.”
A second funeral will be held this week for Ahmad in Homs, where he will be buried.
