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The family of the drowned Syrian toddler the photo of whose lifeless body on a Turkish beach sparked outrage had been denied asylum in Canada.
The child died alongside his five-year-old brother, Galip, their mother, Rihan, and at least nine other refugees when their boat overturned during the desperate voyage from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos.
The boys’ father, Abdullah, survived.
Relatives in Canada said the family were the subject of a “G5” privately sponsored refugee application that was rejected by the country’s Citizenship and Immigration service in June.
The children’s aunt, Teema Kurdi, told the Ottawa Citizen that after they fled from the war-torn border town of Kobani, which was overrun by Isis last year, the UN would not register them as refugees and the Turkish government would not grant exit visas.
“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,” she told the newspaper.
“That is why they went in the boat.”
G5 applications allow at least five Canadian citizens to sponsor refugees to move to the country on the condition that they give them emotional and financial support.
But only applicants who are formally recognised as refugees by the UN or a foreign state can be accepted.
Agencies/Canadajournal
