The bodies of Aylan, three (left) and his brother Galip, five (right) washed up on the shores of the Mediterranean.
The bodies of Aylan, three (left) and his brother Galip, five (right) washed up on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Warning: This article contains images that readers may find distressing
The heartbroken father of two young boys whose bodies washed up on the beach in Turkey watched tearfully as their coffins embarked on their final journey.
Little Aylan, three, and Galip Kurdi, five, were on an overcrowded boat filled with refugees fleeing the war in Syria when it capsized shortly into the crossing to the Greek island of Kos.
Both boys died in the sea alongside their mother, Rehan, while their father Abdullah survived. Today the shattered father watched as the coffins of the family he couldn't save left the morgue.
Earlier he had described the horrific moment that his family slipped through his fingers as he screamed for help.
He told reporters: "My kids were the most beautiful children in the world, wonderful. Now all I want to do is sit next to the grave of my wife and children."
Aylan and Galip, who were not wearing life jackets, did not stand a chance when the boat overturned in the dead of night, some 30 minutes after it set off from the holiday resort of Bodrum in Turkey.
All 17 passengers were flung into the Mediterranean, and despite the calm water, Galip and Aylan drowned.
Galip (right), five, and Aylan Kurdi (left), three, pictured with their father Abdullah who survived the tragedy.
Their lifeless bodies, still clad in tiny T-shirts and shorts, washed up on Ali Hoca Point Beach in Bodrum yesterday.
Mr Kurdi has confirmed to reporters that he was on board the ship with his family but was unable to save them.
He said the boat's captain panicked due to the high waves and jumped into the sea and fled, leaving him in control of the small craft.
"I took over and started steering," he said. "The waves were so high and the boat flipped."
He told Turkey's Dogan News Agency: "I was holding my wife's hand, but my children slipped through my hands. We tried to cling to the boat, but it was deflating. It was dark and everyone was screaming."
Mr Kurdi said his family were trying to get to Canada from Kobane after fleeing to Turkey last year to escape Islamic State extremists.
According to Mr Kurdi's Facebook page, he was originally from Damascus in Syria. He told Dogan News Agency he had paid human traffickers to take his family to Kos twice before, but both attempts failed.
"In our first attempt, coastguards captured us in the sea and then they released us. In our second attempt, the organisers did not keep their word and did not bring the boat," he said. It is believed a smuggler told the journey would only take 10 minutes.
Abdullah Kurdi cries as he waits for the delivery of his family's bodies. Photo / AP
Yesterday he identified the bodies of his wife and two sons and waited for their release from the morgue in Mugla, Turkey.
Now he wants to return to Kobane now to bury his family. A hospital official in Bodrum said the bodies would be flown to Istanbul later today and taken to the Turkish border town of Suruc before reaching their final destination Kobane.
The boys' aunt has spoken of the moment Mr Kurdi called relatives after the tragedy.
She revealed the family had been refused visas in June to join her in Canada, so instead had taken the fateful decision to risk their lives by paying smugglers to take them to Europe. "I heard the news at five o'clock in this morning," Vancouver-based Teema Kurdi told National Post.
The bodies of his wife, Rehan Kurdi, and Syrian boys Aylan, three, and Galip, five, preparing to make their final journey. Photo / AP
She said she learned of the tragedy through a telephone call from Ghuson Kurdi, the wife of another brother, Mohammad, who had spoken with the bereaved father.
"She had got a call from Abdullah, and all he said was, 'my wife and two boys are dead'," she explained.
The aunt said an application to sponsor the family to go to Canada was rejected in June.
"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,' she added.
Canadian legislator Fin Donnelly told The Canadian Presshe had submitted a request on behalf on the boys' aunt.
A Turkish police officer carries the lifeless body of three-year-old refugee Aylan Kurdi. Photo / AP
Canadian immigration authorities rejected the application, in part because the family did not have exit visas to ease their passage out of Turkey and because of their lack of internationally recognised refugee status, the aunt told the Ottawa Citizen.
In total, 13 passengers - including the Kurdish brothers, their mother Rehan, 35, and another three children - are believed to have died in the tragedy.
According to local reports the boats were part of a flotilla of dinghys that were boarded at an inlet before puttering out to the sea off Akyarlar - the nearest point from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos.
Another dinghy among the flotilla, which was carrying a further 16 refugees to Kos, also capsized.
The fisherman who found the brothers' bodies told the BBC: "I came to the sea and I was scared. My heart is broken."
Tragically among the dead on that boat was another set of brothers, Zainb Ahmet-Hadi, 11 and his younger brother Hayder, nine.
Their grief-stricken mother Zeynep was pictured being consoled by her surviving daughter Rowad, seven.
According to one passenger, Omer Mohsin, there were 175 people crammed onto 12 boats in the narrow inlet of water.
"We paid 2,050 euro each," said Omer, whose brother Bekir is feared to be among the dead. "The boat we boarded is for 10 people, 17 people boarded. It sank almost as soon as we reached the open water - but it was pitchblack - those that couldn't swim didn't stand a chance."
Five Turkish coastguard boats, an air sea rescue helicopter and a spotter plane all raced to the scene at dawn after eye-witness reports of bodies floating in the sea.
The coastguard confirmed that none of the boats had made it to Kos - all turned back to Bodrum.
"Attention please, on Track 8 the train does not depart. Please get off the train," the station said over the loudspeakers. There was no immediate word about why the police withdrew.
More than 2,000 migrants, many of them refugees from conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, had been camped in front of the Keleti Railway Terminus, closed to them by authorities saying European Union rules bar travel by those without valid documents.
And Greece's coast guard said today it has rescued hundreds of migrants at sea as they attempted to reach Greek islands clandestinely from the nearby Turkish coast.
It picked up 751 people in 19 incidents between yesterday morning and this morning off the coasts of the islands of Lesbos, Samos, Agathonissi, Farmakonissi, Kalymnos and Symi.
In the Czech Republic, authorities will release 230 Syrians who have been detained in migrant centres.
The move comes a day after authorities announced they no longer intended to prevent Syrians who had already claimed asylum in Hungary from traveling via its territory to Germany.
The Czechs had previously detained Syrian migrants, as well as those from other nations, for up to 42 days.
The new policy could allow Syrian migrants to travel more freely to Berlin because the most direct Hungarian trains to Germany's capital pass through the Czech Republic.
Police spokeswoman Katerina Rendlova says the Syrians have seven days to leave the country.
On Tuesday, tensions flared at Greece's northern border with Macedonia, where about 1,500 migrants were waiting to cross.
Fights and scuffles broke out near the Greek village of Idomeni after migrants, mainly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, attempted to rush past Macedonian border police.
Germany, France and the UK have called for a meeting of EU interior and justice ministers in mid-September to work out new responses to the crisis.
While Germany says it expects to receive 800,000 migrants - quadruple last year's figure - many other EU nations face criticism for failing to commit to housing more asylum seekers.
- Daily Mail
Everything you need to know about the refugee crises
1. How bad is the refugee crisis?
There are currently around 52 million refugees around the world - numbers not seen since the end of World War II.
Images coming out of Europe have highlighted the plight of millions of refugees who have fled from Syria since conflict began in 2011.
Closer to New Zealand, Burma's persecuted Rohingya Muslim population has fled in droves, with many ending up marooned at sea on overcrowded vessels, often without food or water.
2. How is the world responding?
The numbers of refugees entering or attempting to get to Europe has caused a range of reactions from Governments. In Europe, Germany has led the way with plans to take 800,000 asylum seekers this year.
Some Europeans have set-up voluntary campaigns such as Refugees Welcome, which is a scheme for sharing homes dubbed the "Airbnb for refugees".
3. What is New Zealand doing?
New Zealand is in the UN's refugee programme and has a quota of 750 refugees a year with leeway to take 75 fewer or more.
In the past year 756 refugees came to New Zealand under the quota including 83 from Syria. Refugees are given permanent residence and spend their first six weeks at the Mangere refugee resettlement centre.
4. Is that enough?
All parties within Parliament except for National believe the refugee quota should be increased, which would be the first increase in 30 years.
New Zealand is ranked 87th in the world for total refugee resettlement per capita.
Non-government organisations have also called on the Government to increase the quota or allow for an emergency refugee allocation, as happened with the Tampa refugees.
Prime Minister John Key has been firm on not increasing the quota, but yesterday softened his stance, and said the Government could move earlier than a regular review of the quota next year.
How you can help
Donate World Vision has been supporting the Syrian refugees since 2011, and has already reached more than 1 million people left homeless and vulnerable in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria and Iraq.
