MUGLA: The father of two Syrian toddlers who drowned with their mother and several other migrants, Abdullah Kurdi collapsed in tears after emerging from a morgue in the city of Mugla near Bodrum, where the body of his three-year-old son, Alan, washed up.
The migrants tried to reach Greece when their ship capsized in the sea, Kurdi identified the bodies on Thursday and prepared to take them back to their home town of Kobani.
An image of the boy’s tiny body in a bright red T-shirt and dark shorts, face-down in the surf, appeared in newspapers around the world, prompting sympathy and outrage at the perceived inaction of developed nations in helping refugees.
Alan’s five-year-old brother, Ghalib, and mother, Rehan, 35, were among 12 people, including other children, who died after two boats capsized while trying to reach the Greek island of Kos.
“I was holding my wife’s hand. My children slipped away from my hands. We tried to hold on to the boat,” he said in the statement. “Everyone was screaming in pitch darkness. I couldn’t make my voice heard to my wife and kids.”
The image of Alan, drowned off one of Turkey’s most popular holiday resorts, went viral on social media and piled pressure on European leaders.
