Refugee crisis: World ‘has not understood message’ of Alan Kurdi’s death, father says

‘Nobody wants to leave their home, but refugees have no choice. And they need Europe,’ Abdullah says

(REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi)

The world “has not understood the message” of Alan Kurdi’s death and has “closed its doors” on refugees, the three-year-old’s father has said.

Abdullah Kurdi told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme ”it is impossible to forget what happened”, adding: “I only blame myself.”

The photo showing Alan’s body lying face down in the sand on a Turkish beach drew the world’s attention to the harsh reality of the refugee crisis, highlighting the treacherous journeys many people take as they flee violence or seek a better life.

Mr Kurdi said he was “forced” to flee the Syrian civil war with his wife and children because he could “picture them in a school” and “wanted a better life for them”.

“But it didn’t go as planned,” he said. ”I regret it.”

Alan died along with his brother, Galip, and mother, Rihan, on 2 September, 2015, after their boat sank as it travelled from the Turkish resort city of Bodrum to the Greek island of Kos.

Mr Kurdi said although ”Europe opened its heart” after the death of his son, three months later “it closed its doors again”.

“I don’t know why,” he said. “I believe the world hasn’t understood the message of Alan’s death yet.

“Nobody wants to leave their home, but refugees have no choice. And they need Europe.”

Mr Kurdi has since remarried and had another son named Alan.

“I named him after his brother Alan so I remember him,” he said. ”God sent me a child who looks like Alan and has the same character.

“I can’t wait to go home to see him. I feel that he’s a godsend.”

It comes after Alan’s aunt, Tima Kurdi, appealed to the world to help refugees and do something to stop the continued drowning deaths in the Mediterranean Sea.

She said “while I couldn’t save my own family, let’s help save others in need.”

Ms Kurdi, who founded the Kurdi Foundation to help refugee children in need after Alan’s death, has campaigned to improve the perception of refugees and migrants and show those who perceive them as a problem or threat the level of suffering they are exposed to.

“Those people are innocent victims, they flee from force, not by choice,” she said. ”Sadly, our family’s tragedy is one of many. We cannot close our eyes.”

An estimated 20,000 refugees have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean since 2014, the UN migration agency said in March.

Additional reporting by Reuters