Aunt of drowned Syrian refugee children 'regrets giving family money' to flee to Europe

Tima Kurdi cries speaking about the death of her nephews Aylan and Galip who drowned in Turkey trying to reach Greece
Ben Nelms/Reuters
Benedict Moore-Bridger4 September 2015

With pain etched on her face and shaking with emotion, the heartbroken aunt of Aylan and Galip Kurdi tells of her regret at giving the family money to make the sea crossing that claimed the boys’ lives.

Harrowing images of three-year-old Aylan washed up on a Turkish beach caused an outcry around the world and has led to renewed calls for urgent action to tackle the humanitarian crisis engulfing Europe.

Aylan and his five-year-old brother drowned along with their mother Rehan, 35, as they fled war-torn Sryia, trying to reach the Greek island of Kos in a dinghy.

Their father Abdullah Kurdi survived, and revealed his tragic attempts to save his children, telling of his horror as they drowned in front of him.

The family had hoped to eventually reach Canada and had undertaken the journey after their asylum claim was rejected by the country’s authorities because of the complexities involved in applications from Turkey.

Aylan and his mother Rehan, 35, both drowned while fleeing war-torn Syria
Ben Nelms/Reuters

Mr Kurdi’s sister Tima Kurdi, who lives in Vancouver, told reporters she felt guilty about her unwitting part in the tragedy.

Wiping tears from her eyes and surrounded by her family— including son, Alan, and daughter Hawer — she said: “I said to Adbullah, ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have sent the money.’ He said, ‘Don’t blame yourself, you did it because you told us there’s no way Canada is going to bring us in, its going to be hard’.”

She paid tribute to his wife — her cousin — who was also among the 12 who died when the dinghy capsized. Eight are thought to have been children.

“His wife told me on the phone a week ago, ‘I am so scared of the water. I don’t know how to swim, if something happens… I don’t want to go.’ But I guess they decided they wanted to do it all together. Those two kids — they didn’t see a good life at all.

Aylan and his five-year-old brother Galip
Reuters

“Rehan was also too young to die. It shouldn’t happen. People flee the war for their kids’ safety, their lives were in danger, they have been forced.”

Ms Kurdi, a hairdresser, said her brother had told her of the terrifying moments the boat capsized.

She said: “Abdullah right away caught both his kids and tried so hard with all the power he had to keep them up from the water, screaming, ‘Breathe, breathe, I don’t want you to die.’ In his left arm was Galip and he saw he was dead and he told me, ‘I had to let him go’. Then he looked at Aylan and could see blood from his eyes, so he closed them and said, ‘Rest in peace my son.’ He saw his wife floating in the water like a balloon and said he could not recognise her.”

Ms Kurdi had begged her brother not to return to their home town of Kobane in Syria as it was too dangerous.

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