International
Nilufer Demir / DHA / Reuters
Warning: This story contains imagery that readers may find distressing
The father of a 3-year-old Syrian boy whose washed-up body on a Turkish shore has come to encapsulate the refugee crisis facing Europe spoke of his loss Thursday, saying: "All I want is to be with my children."
Aylan Kurdi was found face down on the beach in sneakers, blue shorts and a red shirt after the small rubber boat he and his family were in capsized in a desperate voyage from Turkey to Greece. A photograph of the young boy's body has since been widely distributed, prompting demands that European nations do more to alleviate the plight of refugees.
Aylan died along with 5-year-old brother Galip and his mother, Rehan. The boys' distraught father, Abdullah, said Thursday he wanted one thing and one thing only: to sit by the graves of his wife and children.
"My kids were the most beautiful children in the world, wonderful. They wake me up every morning to play with them. They are all gone now," he said.
A Canadian legislator said the family, fleeing the conflict in Syria, had been turned down in a bid for legal entry to Canada even though it had close relatives there offering financial backing and shelter, but Canada's Department of Citizenship and Immigration later denied that assertion.
"There was no record of an application received for Mr. Abdullah Kurdi and his family," the department said in a statement, indicating that a bid for another member of the family, Mohammad Kurdi, had been returned as incomplete.
Tima Kurdi of Vancouver, who is Abdullah's sister, initially told Canadian media that the family had embarked on the perilous boat journey only after its bid was rejected. She later said, however, that no formal request for refugee status had been made on Abdullah Kurdi's behalf, saying one was filed, and rejected, on another relative's behalf. She also gave a different transliteration for the boys' names, calling them Alan and Galib.
Accounts of events changed several times Thursday as information flowed in from several parts of the world.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said some early accounts contained inaccurate information.
Describing the tragedy, Abdullah Kurdi said the overloaded boat flipped over moments after the captain, described as a Turkish man, panicked and abandoned the vessel, leaving Abdullah as the de facto commander of a small boat overmatched by high seas.
"I took over and started steering. The waves were so high and the boat flipped. I took my wife and my kids in my arms and I realized they were all dead," he said.
In a police statement later leaked to the Turkish news agency Dogan, Abdullah Kurdi gave a different account, denying that a smuggler was aboard. However, smugglers often instruct migrants that if caught they should deny their presence and it was unclear whether he had been trying to protect a smuggler's identity in his statement to police.
The distraught father, who worked as a barber in Syria, added: "All I want is to be with my children at the moment."
Abdullah Kurdi said the boat, headed for the Greek island of Kos, was only at sea for four minutes before the captain abandoned the vessel and its 12 passengers.
The route between Bodrum in Turkey and Kos, just a few miles, is one of the shortest from Turkey to the Greek islands, but it remains dangerous. Hundreds of people a day try to cross it despite the well-documented risks.
According to U.N. officials, more than 24,000 people arrived from northern Syria amid fighting between the Islamic State group and Kurdish militants.
Close to 2 million people have fled Syria for Turkey, making the country the biggest host of refugees in the world. The country complains that it is bearing the responsibility mostly on its own.
In Britain, U.N. refugee agency representative Laura Padoan said publishing the photos may bring a major change in the public's perception of the crisis.
"I think a lot of people will think about their own families and their own children in relation to those images," she said. "It is difficult for politicians to turn their backs on those kind of images and the very real tragedy that is happening."
Al Jazeera and the Associated Press
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