Migrant father paid €4,000 for crossing … and watched his family drown one by one
The father of the three-year-old migrant whose body washed up on a Turkish beach paid €4,000 to a people smuggler to help his family flee to a better life. Kurdish refugee Abdullah Kurdi borrowed the money to take his wife and two children on the 15ft dinghy from Turkey to Greece, only for it to capsize in rough seas a few minutes into its journey. The captain dived into the sea and abandoned his 12 passengers to their fate. Abdullah clung to the wreckage and his family but his children, Aylan, three, and Ghalib, five, and wife Rehana, were washed away one by one and drowned. He survived after hours in the water but will be heading home to Kobane in Syria to bury his family. He said: “My kids were the most beautiful children in the world. Wonderful. They woke me up every morning to play with them and now, they are all gone. Now all I want is to lie in a grave next to my wife and children.”
I tried to catch my children and wife but there was no hope. One by one they died
Aylan’s father, Abdullah
The pictures of Aylan’s body face down in the surf and being carried away by a rescue worker have provoked sympathy across the world, including from David Cameron who said today he was “deeply moved”. It also emerged that the family, one of hundreds of thousands fleeing the conflict in Syria, dreamed of a new life in Canada. They decided to cross into Europe after their privately sponsored refugee application to the Canadian authorities was rejected in June. Abdullah’s sister, Teema, a hairdresser who has lived in Vancouver for 20 years, said: “I was trying to sponsor them, and I have my friends and my neighbours who helped me with the bank deposits, but we couldn’t get them out, and that is why they went in the boat.” Police in Turkey say they have arrested four suspected traffickers over the deaths.
I was even paying rent for them in Turkey, but it is horrible the way they treat Syrians there
Aylan’s aunt, Teema Kurdi
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