Family of Syrian child tried to reach Canada: report

Reuters, ANKARA

The family of a Syrian toddler whose body washed up on a Turkish beach had been trying toemigrate to Canada after fleeing the war-torn town of Kobani, one of their relatives told a Canadian newspaper yesterday.

A photograph of the tiny body of three-year old Aylan Kurdi washed up in the Aegean resort of Bodrum swept social media on Wednesday, spawning sympathy and outrage at the perceived inaction of developed nations in helping refugees.

His five-year-old brother, Galip, and mother, Rehan, 35, also died after their boat capsizedwhile trying to reach the Greek island of Kos. His father, Abdullah, was found semi-conscious and taken to hospital near Bodrum, Turkey’s Sabah newspaper said.

“I heard the news at 5 o’clock this morning,” Teema Kurdi, Abdullah’s sister and a resident of Vancouver, was quoted as saying by Canada’s National Post newspaper.

Teema had been contacted by the wife of one of Abdullah’s brothers.

“She had got a call from Abdullah, and all he said was, my wife and two boys are dead,” Teema said.

Abdullah, his wife and two children had made a privately sponsored refugee application to the Canadian authorities that was rejected in June because of complications with applications from Turkey, the newspaper quoted Teema as saying.

“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,” she said.

“I was even paying rent for them in Turkey, but it is horrible the way they treat Syrians there,” she said.

Turkey has won international praise for taking in 2 million refugees since the Syrian civil war began in March 2011, spending US$6 billion caring for them and receiving just US$400 million in outside aid.

However, it has warned it is reaching capacity, and thousands are now making the perilousjourney by boat from Turkey to Greece in a bid to enter Europe.

Kobani, a town in northern Syria near the Turkish border, was the scene of heavy fighting between Islamic State insurgents and Kurdish regional forces several months ago.

Tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing the war in their homeland have descended on Turkey’s Aegean coast this summer to board boats to Greece.

Abdullah’s family were among at least 12 presumed Syrian refugees who died trying to reach Kos after two boats, carrying a total of 23 people, set off separately from the Akyarlar area of the Bodrum Peninsula, a naval official said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2015/09/04/2003626930

*Structure of the Lead：
WHO-The family of a Syrian toddler
WHEN-yesterday
WHAT-a Syrian toddler whose body washed up on a Turkish beach 
WHY-had been trying to emigrate to Canada after fleeing the war-torn town of Kobani 
WHERE-not given 
HOW-not  given

*Keywords：
1. toddler：學步的小孩；蹣跚行走者
2. wash up：(浪頭)把...衝上岸
3. emigrate：移居外國
4. flee：逃離 
5. sweep：掃蕩；肅清，消滅