Father of drowned Syrian toddlers to take their bodies home

Nissy Koye, friend of Tima Kurdi, the sister of Syrian refugee Abdullah Kurdi lights a candle near photographs of the dead boys outside Tima's home in Coquitlam, British Columbia REUTERS/Ben Nelms

The father of two Syrian children who made world headlines when their bodies were found on a beach in Turkey, is preparing to take their bodies back to their hometown in Kobani.

Abdullah Kurdi, who identified the bodies on Thursday (3 September) at a morgue in the city of Mugla near Bodrum, where the body of his three-year-old son Aylan was found the day before.

Aylan's five-year-old brother, Galip and his mother, Rehan, 35, were among 12 people who died after two boats capsized while trying to reach the Greek island of Kos.

Although there were other children who also drowned when the boats capsized, it was the picture of Aylan, lying face-down in the surf that hit newspapers worldwide, drawing global outrage at what is seen as the lack of action by developed nations to help these refugees fleeing war torn countries.

Abdullah told reporters: "The things that happened to us here, in the country where we took refuge to escape war in our homeland, we want the whole world to see this. We want the world's attention on us, so that they can prevent the same from happening to others. Let this be the last."

According to a statement made to the police which was obtained by the Hurriyet newspaper, Abdullah claimed that he had paid smugglers twice to take his family to Greece but in both instances, it did not happen.

They then decided to find a boat themselves and to row it across the sea. When the boat started to take in water and those on the boat stood up in panic, the vessel capsized.

"I was holding my wife's hand. My children slipped away from my hands. We tried to hold on to the boat. Everyone was screaming in pitch darkness. I couldn't make my voice heard to my wife and kids."

Abdullah's family wanted to emigrate to Canada, where his sister Tima Kurdi lives in Vancouver.

According to Reuters, Tima had sponsored another brother but his application was rejected. She said she had not yet tried to sponsor Abdullah and his family as she could only afford to sponsor one brother at a time.

"They didn't deserve to die, they didn't. They were going for a better life. That shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't have happened to them," she told reporters in Vancouver.