The aunt of the drowned Syrian boy whose death sparked global outrage about the plight of refugees in Europe says she still hopes to bring the rest of her family to Canada.

Tima Kurdi was speaking through tears outside her home in Coquitlam, British Columbia.

She said she plans to help her brother, Abdullah, and her other siblings immigrate to the country she made home more than two decades ago.

Abdullah is not ready to leave his Syrian hometown of Kobani, where his sons, three year-old Aylan and Ghalib,five, and wife Rehanna were buried on Friday, she said.

They drowned earlier this week after piling into an overloaded boat in Bodrum, Turkey, headed for the Greek island of Kos. Her brother was among the few survivors.

"We're all emotionally affected by what happened right now," Ms Kurdi said, surrounded by framed photos of her nephews. "I'm sure he (will) refuse and he doesn't want to leave Kobani."

She added: "But one day, I will bring him here. He cannot be by himself there."

Ms Kurdi has previously said she wanted to bring both her brothers to Canada, but she applied first for her eldest sibling Mohammed, whose application was rejected because it was incomplete.

She said Mohammed's failed application prompted Abdullah to embark on the risky journey with his family. She sent him 5,000 dollars (£3,300) to pay smugglers to take them in a boat.

Asked whether her brother blames himself, Ms Kurdi said no.

"I am the one who should be at blame," she said. "I blame myself because my brother does not have money. I sent him the money to pay the smuggler. If I didn't send him the money, those people still (would be) alive."

She said the trip was the "only option" left for the family to have a better life in a European country, possibly Germany or Sweden.

They were fleeing horrors in Syria, where militants from the Islamic State group had beheaded one of her sister-in-law's relatives.

Ms Kurdi said her brother had emailed her a photo of the killing but she deleted it because it was too horrific.

Abdullah knew of the dangers, including the risk of smugglers using fake life-jackets, she said.

Photos of Aylan's lifeless body on a beach in Turkey have put Canada's refugee policy in the spotlight, though Ms Kurdi said she does not blame the government.

Ms Kurdi spoke to both her brothers by phone on Friday and watched emotional video on CNN of her two young nephews being buried in Kobani.

She said she desperately wished she could be there with her brother to say goodbye.

"Abdullah said to me, 'I don't want you to come. It's dangerous,'" she said, weeping. "I (could) stay there for the rest of my life, sitting beside their grave, feed them, give them water."

Her grieving brother is proud of his children for becoming a symbol of the dire situation facing Syrian refugees, and hopes to see leaders step in to end human smuggling, Ms Kurdi said.

"He said, 'I don't need anything from this world anymore. What I have is gone.But my kids, and my wife, it's a wake-up call for the world. And hopefully they step in and help others.'"

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.