His father, Abdullah, was found semi-conscious and taken to hospital near Bodrum, according to Turkish media. “We provided that and then weeks of waiting and frustration began until the image which has now gone around the world of the little boy lying on the beach… appeared”, Donnelly said.
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Speaking to the Ottawa Citizen, she explained that the family were the subject of a privately sponsored refugee application that was rejected because of problems with their file in Turkey.
The child’s name was Aylan Kurdi and he was three years old.
They were among at least 12 people feared dead when their flimsy boats collapsed on Wednesday as they headed from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos.
The death of Aylan Kurdi, 3, who drowned along with his brother, Gulip, 5, and mother, Reham, has drawn worldwide attention to the Syrian refugee crisis and placed the Canadian government under fire after it emerged the family had been trying to come here as refugees. “If the European Union doesn’t intervene quickly to absorb the populations … if the issue isn’t internationalised on a United Nations level, every so often we will be discussing how to avoid the crisis“, he told reporters, insisting that the thousands risking their lives to flee conflict were refugees. The body washed over Mediterranean beach in the Turkish resort of Bodrum.
Turkey’s state-run news agency reported Thursday evening that police have detained four suspected people smugglers.
Insecurity forced the family to decide they had no alternative but to try to reach Europe from Turkey, said Ebdi. The deputy governor of the Turkish coastal city of Mugla told BBC correspondent Fergal Keane officials would start the process of returning the toddler’s body, as well as those of his brother and mother, on Thursday.
But a video posted on the Vine social media service shows one teenage boy explaining that he and other refugees would rather not flee their homes. “It is hard for politicians to turn their backs on those kind of images and the very real tragedy that is happening”.
Among the dead were five children and a woman, while 15 others were rescued, the coastguard said. “That’s what it is”, Bickmore said regaining her composure.
So they took the boat, the Associated Press reported.
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Lawmaker Nadhim Zahawi said on Twitter that the picture should “make us all ashamed”.
