The distraught father of two Syrian toddlers who drowned with their mother and several other migrants as they tried to reach Greece identified their bodies yesterday and prepared to take them back to their home town of Kobani.
Abdullah Kurdi collapsed in tears after emerging from a morgue in the city of Mugla near Bodrum, where the body of his three-year-old son, Aylan, washed up on Wednesday.
A photograph of the boy’s tiny body in a bright red T-shirt and dark shorts, face-down in the surf, appeared in newspapers around the world, prompting sympathy and outrage at the perceived inaction of developed nations in helping refugees.
Aylan’s five-year-old brother, Galip, and mother, Rehan, 35, were among 12 people, including other children, who died after two boats capsized while trying to reach the Greek island of Kos.
“The things that happened to us here, in the country where we took refuge to escape war in our homeland, we want the whole world to see this,” Abdullah told reporters.
I was holding my wife’s hand – my children slipped away from my hands
“We want the world’s attention on us, so that they can prevent the same from happening to others. Let this be the last,” he said.
In a statement to police obtained by the Hurriyet newspaper, Abdullah said he had twice paid smugglers to take him and his family to Greece but their efforts had failed. They had then decided to find a boat and row themselves but it began to take in water and when people stood up in panic, it capsized.
“I was holding my wife’s hand. My children slipped away from my hands. We tried to hold on to the boat,” he said in the statement. “Everyone was screaming in pitch darkness. I couldn’t make my voice heard to my wife and kids.”
The image of Aylan, drowned off one of Turkey’s most popular holiday resorts, went viral on social media and piled pressure on European leaders.
“European countries, which have turned the Mediterranean, the cradle of the world’s oldest civilisations, into a cemetery for refugees, share the sin for every refugee who loses their life,” Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said. Abdullah’s family had wanted to emigrate to Canada after fleeing the war-torn town of Kobani, a revelation which also put Canada’s Conservative government under fire from its political opponents. Abdullah said Canadian officials had now offered him citizenship after seeing what had happened but that he declined. Canadian officials in the capital Ottawa said it was not true that Ottawa had offered him citizenship.
Abdullah’s sister in Vancouver said contrary to earlier reports, she had not yet tried to sponsor Abdullah, his wife and sons to come to Canada, but that she had first sponsored another brother, whose application had been rejected.
Tima Kurdi said the brother’s application was rejected because the family did not have a UN number, which they could not obtain because they did not have Turkish identification. She said she could only afford to sponsor her brothers one at a time.
Turkey has won international praise for taking in 2 million refugees since the Syrian civil war began in March 2011, spending $6 billion caring for them and receiving just $400 million in outside aid. But it has warned it is reaching capacity, and thousands are now making the perilous journey by boat from Turkey to Greece in a bid to enter Europe.
Security officials said the bodies of Abdullah’s two sons and wife would be flown to the southeastern city of Sanliurfa, from where they would be taken to the Syrian border town of Kobani.
Kobani, the family’s hometown, has been the scene of intense fighting over the last year. In recent months, Kurdish regional forces have been trying to repel attempts by Islamic State to recapture the town.