Drowned child’s aunt seeks to avoid more migrant deaths
BERLIN (AP) — The aunt of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, whose drowning five years ago put a human face on the Syrian refugee crisis, appealed to the world Tuesday to help refugees in need and not allow their continued drowning deaths in the Mediterranean Sea.
Tima Kurdi told reporters in the southern German city of Regensburg that “while I couldn’t save my own family, let’s help save others in need.”
The image of the little boy’s lifeless body lying face down on a Turkish beach galvanized world attention to the refugee crisis, illustrating the magnitude of the suffering, the lives destroyed and the treacherous journeys migrants risked fleeing violence or seeking a better life.
While Turkish authorities have given the boy’s first name as Aylan, his aunt says the family prefers that it be transliterated as Alan.
Alan’s brother, Galip, and mother Rihan, were also among the five people who drowned on Sept. 2, 2015, when their boat sank on the ill-fated journey from the Turkish resort city of Bodrum to the Greek island of Kos.
18 PHOTOSNew mother's journey in the migrant caravanSee GalleryNew mother's journey in the migrant caravan
Newborn Alvin Reyes sleeps next to his mother Honduran migrant Erly Marcial, 21, at a hospital in Puebla, Mexico, November 13, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Honduran migrant Maria Reyes, 6, wakes up next to her father Alvin Reyes and mother Erly Marcial, who is eight months pregnant, and her brother David, 2, after they spent the night with fellow migrants in Tapanatepec, Mexico, November 6, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Honduran migrant Alvin Reyes, 39, touches his newborn son Alvin, next to his wife Erly Marcial, 21, at a hospital in Puebla, Mexico, November 13, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Honduran migrant Erly Marcial, 21, organises her belongings next to her husband Alvin Reyes, 39, and their sons David, 2, and newborn Alvin, in the dormitory of a church where they are staying in Tijuana, Mexico, December 4, 2018. =
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Eight months pregnant Honduran migrant Erly Marcial, 21, takes a bath in the river with her son David, 2, in Tapanatepec, Mexico, November 6, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Eight months pregnant Honduran migrant Erly Marcial, 21, lies on cardboard while she stays with her family and fellow migrants in Tapanatepec, Mexico, November 6, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Honduran migrant Erly Marcial, 21, carries her newborn son Alvin with her children, Maria, 6, and David, 2, while her husband Alvin Reyes buys bus tickets to Mexico City, at a bus station in Puebla, Mexico, November 13, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Honduran migrants Erly Marcial, 21, and Alvin Reyes, 39, receive the Mexican birth certificate for their newborn son Alvin, in Puebla, Mexico, November 13, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Eight months pregnant Honduran migrant Erly Marcial, 21, plays with her daughter Maria, 6, in the river in Tapanatepec, Mexico, November 6, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Honduran migrant Alvin Reyes, 39, talks with doctors about the condition of his wife Erly Marcial, 21, who is eight months pregnant, at a hospital in Puebla, Mexico, November 12, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Eight months pregnant Honduran migrant Erly Marcial, 21, takes a bath in the river next to her son David, 2, while they stay with fellow migrants in Tapanatepec, Mexico, November 6, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Eight months pregnant Honduran migrant Erly Marcial, 21, is carried to a hospital on a stretcher in Puebla, Mexico, November 11, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Eight months pregnant Honduran migrant Erly Marcial, 21, and her husband Alvin Reyes, 39, board a truck as they hitch a ride towards the U.S., in Santo Domingo Ingenio, Mexico, November 8, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Eight months pregnant Honduran migrant Erly Marcial, 21, rests with fellow migrants on the road that links Tapanatepec and Santo Domingo Ingenio, near Tapanatepec, Mexico, November 7, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Eight months pregnant Honduran migrant Erly Marcial, 21, walks with her husband Alvin Reyes, 39, carrying their children David, 2, and Maria, 6, on the road that links Tapanatepec and Santo Domingo Ingenio, near Tapanatepec, Mexico, November 7, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Honduran migrant Alvin Reyes, 39, visits his wife Erly Marcial, 21, who is eight months pregnant, at a hospital in Puebla, Mexico, November 12, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Honduran migrant Alvin Reyes, 39, embraces his son David, 2, next to his daughter Maria, 6, in front of the police station in Pijijiapan, Mexico, November 4, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
A man jogs next to the border wall between Mexico and the U.S., in Tijuana, Mexico, December 10, 2018.
(REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
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Tima Kurdi, who later founded the Kurdi Foundation to help refugee children in need, is campaigning to show those who perceive migrants as a problem or threat the level of suffering migrants and refugees are exposed to.
“Those people are innocent victims, they flee from force, not by choice,” she said, struggling to fight back the tears.
“Sadly, our family’s tragedy is one of many,” she added. “We cannot close our eyes.”
Five years ago, during the height of Europe’s migrant crisis, more than 1 million people mostly from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, fled to Europe, many of them by crossing the Mediterranean in flimsy smugglers’s boats that often sank.
In March, the U.N. migration agency said since 2014, an estimated 20,000 migrants have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean.
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