Three-year-old Aylan, brother Galip laid to rest
Aylan Kurdi, together with his mother and his five-year-old brother, has been buried in his hometown of Kobane in Syria
Brothers Aylan and Galip
Three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, his brother Galip and their mother were buried this afternoon in their hometown of Kobane in Syria.
Pictures of young Aylan’s lifeless body washed up on the Turkish resort of Dodrum sparked public outrage, pushing European governments to do more in tackling the refugee crisis.
Aylan’s father, Abdullah, who survived the capsizing that killed his family, wept as the bodies were buried in the predominantly Kurdish Syrian border town.
“I want from Arab governments, not European countries, to see my children, and because of them to help people,” he said in footage posted online by a local radio station.
The bodies were flown to a town near Turkey’s border with Syria, from where police escorted funeral vehicles to Suruç and across the border into Kobani.
The ambulances drove past sobbing mourners, Kurdish flags, and Kobani's shelled-out buildings towards the cemetery.
The Guardian report that, unlike other Syrians heading for Europe, the Kurdi family had lived in Turkey for three years before deciding to head to Canada, where Abdullah’s sister has for several years attempted – and failed – to sponsor their asylum claim.
