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September 3, 2015

Family of Drowned Syrian Boy Had Been Denied Asylum by Canada 
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In the latest from the global migration crisis, the photos of the
lifeless body of a Syrian boy who washed up on a Turkish beach after his
boat sank in the Mediterranean have gone viral. Three-year-old Aylan
Kurdi, his five-year-old brother Galip and their mother, Rehan, drowned
Tuesday as the family attempted to reach Greece in an eventual bid to
join relatives in Canada where their asylum application had been denied.
The boy's aunt, Teema Kurdim, who is a hairdresser in Vancouver, told
the National Post, "I was trying to sponsor them, and I have my friends
and my neighbors who helped me with the bank deposits, but we couldn't
get them out, and that is why they went in the boat." Canada has come
under intense criticism for not accepting more Syrians fleeing the
Syrian civil war. In January, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander
pledged Canada would resettle 10,000 Syrians over three years. But new
government figures show that, as of late July, Canada had welcomed only
1,002 Syrians.

 

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