A lifeless child's body was found washed on a beach in Turkey.
(Warning: this article contains graphic images.)
The National Post reports that a photo circulated around the world, featuring a drowned body that belonged to three-year-old Aylan Kurdi. He drowned along with his five-year-old brother Galip and their mother Rehan, while trying attempting to reach Canada.
CNN reports the photo, circulating around via hashtag #KıyıyaVuranİnsanlık ("Flotsam of Humanity" in English), features the poor child being carried by a Turkish official.
Daily Mail reports that the boy and his family were on an overcrowded dinghy on the way to the Greek island of Kos when it capsized. They fled from their ISIS-besieged hometown of Kobane, in the hopes of starting a new life in Europe.
Their father, Abdullah, survived the capsizing and called their relatives, managing only to say, "My wife and two boys are dead."
The heartbreaking news escalates as photos of the two boys laughing together, with a teddy bear sitting between them, circulated around the internet. A Majid Freeman posts it online.
Heartbreaking: The 2 #refugee brothers who drowned alongside each other & whose bodies washed up on #Turkey's shore pic.twitter.com/ly54sClvau
— Majid Freeman (@Majstar7) September 2, 2015
According to the report, the boys were not wearing any lifejackets when the boat overturned in the dead of night. The capsizing happened shortly after they left shore from the holiday resort of Bodrum in Turkey.
Their lifeless bodies were washed up on Ali Hoca Point Beach in Bodrum. Boatmen who found them informed the authorities. Humanitarian Relief uploads Aylan's photo.
One more journey ended in tragedy. The bodies of three Syrian children washed up on the shore in Bodrum this morning. pic.twitter.com/hul5bNbhb8 — Humanitarian Relief (@IHHen) September 2, 2015
According to the National Post, Abdullah's relatives were helping them migrate to Canada. Teema Kurdi, Abdullah's sister, said that Abdullah and his family were the subject of a privately sponsored refugee application that was turned down in June, due to complexities involved in Turkish refugee applications.
"I was trying to sponsor them, and I have my friends and my neighbors who helped me with the bank deposits, but we couldn't get them out, and that is why they went in the boat," said Teema. "I was even paying rent for them in Turkey, but it is horrible the way they treat Syrians there."
She added that Abdullah plans to return their home town of Kobane, the same one they fled from, to lay the boys and their mother to rest. Abdullah said he wants to be buried alongside them.
The Post adds that it is not uncommon for Syrian Kurds to be denied passports and experience great difficulty in registering themselves as refugees with the UNHCR. Without valid passports, unregistered refugees will not be issued exit visas by the Turkish government.
