Father of photographed drowned Syrian toddler describes the day their boat capsized

Country mourns the situation in which Syria finds itself

The father of Galip and Aylan Kurdi, the two young Syrian boys who washed ashore a Turkish beach, speaks out.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (Catholic Online) - Forty-year-old Abdullah Kurdi was interviewed and he explained the story behind the unsettling images of his son Aylan's body found on the shores of Bodrum.

He said he paid smugglers over $2,000 for a ride to a Greek island but the 15-foot boat was overturned by the choppy waters. 

"The waves were high, the boat started swaying and shaking. We were terrified," Kurdi recounted. "I rushed to my kids and wife while the boat was flipped upside down. And in a second we were all drowning in the water."

Kurdi's wife was later discovered and Kurdi went to Turkey's Mugla Provice to complete paperwork for his 27-year-old wife, Rehan, five-year-old son, Galip and three-year-old son Aylan's bodies to be returned to Kobani for a funeral.

The heartbroken father fought tears as he described his flailing in the water while looking for his children. Rehan held onto the boat and Kurdi found his sons. 

"I started pushing them up to the surface so they could breathe. I had to shift from one to another. I think we were in the water for three hours trying to survive."

He watched as one exhausted son drowned and he pushed the other to Rehan, who held his head above the water. After describing the loss of one son, Mr. Kurdi apologized and ended the conversation, saying he could no longer speak.

Kurdi's family wanted to emigrate to Canada, where his sister had tried several times to arrange the family's emigration. 

Teema Kurdi, who moved to Canada roughly 20 years ago, told The Ottawa Citizen that she applied for visas that would have allowed the family to emigrate as sponsored refugees.

"I was trying to sponsor them, and I have my friends and neighbors who helped me with bank deposits, but we couldn't get them out, and that is why they went in the boat," she said. "I was even paying rent for them in Turkey, but it is horrible the way they treat Syrians there."

Fin Donnely, a local member of Parliament, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that after meeting with Ms. Kurdi in March, he personally delivered a letter citizenship and immigration minister Chris Alexander, asking permissions for the family to be allowed into Canada as quickly as possible.

"I delivered the letter to the minister and -nothing," Donnely said. "We waited and waited, and we didn't have any action."

The visa applications were rejected in Jude, because the United Nations hadn't declared the families as refugees and because the Turkish government denied them exit visas.

Alexander announced his suspension for re-election to Parliament, saying he would return to Ottawa from his Toronto constituency to work on the family's case.

"I am meeting with officials to ascertain both the facts of the case of the Kurdi family and to receive an update on the migrant crisis," he said. "The tragic photo of young Aylan Kurdi and the news of the death of his brother and mother broke hearts around the world. Like all Canadians, I was deeply saddened by that image and of the many other images of the plight of the Syrian and Iraqi migrants fleeing persecution at the hands of ISIS."

Mr. Alexander promised to admit 10,000 refugees from Syria during the election campaign in Canada, but figures from his department show that by the end of July only ten percent of that number had been allowed.

Donnelly spoke with Teema Kurdi Wednesday night and told CBC, "She's so upset. She is distraught and will need time to recover from this."

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