Dead Boys' Aunt Tells Of Asylum Claim Despair

The aunt of two small boys who drowned trying to reach Greece after fleeing the war in Syria has pleaded with Canada to improve its asylum application process.

Tima Kurdi, whose sister-in-law Rehan also died during the attempt, said her brother Abdullah and his family set-out in a rubber dinghy in despair after an earlier asylum application for their brother was rejected.

At the beginning of 2015 she gathered a group of sponsors including family and friends to file an application for her other brother Mohammad and his family to join her in Canada.

"We began a formal process to bring over all of my siblings and their families early in 2015," she said in a statement from her home in Vancouver.

"However, due to financial constraints and a complex application process requiring numerous international documents, we were forced to do one at a time.

"Some of the documentation required for this process included: a valid Syrian passport and a Turkish work permit (Mavi Kimlik card), which are simply not available to Syrians in that region."

When Abdullah heard his brother's formal application for asylum had been rejected by the Canadian authorities he became desperate, and on Wednesday he set out for Greece with his family and two dozen other refugees.

"When Abdullah learned about our brother’s rejected Canadian application, it became clear he also had to find a way to reach Western Europe," said Ms Kurdi.

"There was no hope of collecting the appropriate paperwork for his family to be successful with an entry to Canada. It is too late to save Abdullah's family.

"I respectfully implore our government to work immediately to improve the application procedure based on the current humanitarian crisis."

Coffins carrying the remains of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, his five-year-old brother Galip, and their mother Rehan, were loaded into a van from a morgue in the town of Mugla yesterday.

The boys' traumatised father sobbed when he emerged after identifying his wife and children.

"I just want to sit next to the grave of my children and my wife and rest," he told reporters, as his family's coffins were loaded into a hearse.

The driver told reporters the coffins would be taken to an airport though their final destination is unknown.

Pictures of little Aylan lying face down in the sand of a Turkish beach were published across the world and stirred the international community into collective action over the migration crisis.

Ms Kurdi implored world leaders to do more to help refugees from Syria.

"It is now close to home in the West and it’s clear that people want action by their leaders," she said.

"People are dying because they can’t get basic human essentials, are afraid for their lives and are fleeing to countries they hope will open their borders.

"Please let’s use our collective voices to make change and demand that our world leaders take action now to pass emergency refugee measures.

"Let’s put an end to this suffering. Our hearts have been broken."