An image of a little boy lying dead on the Turkish beach with his face down has shaken the world and forced them to think about the refugee crisis in the region. The father of that three year old Syrian boy has spoken up and said that while sailing in the sea for Greece, his children “slipped through my hands.”
The father’s name is Abdullah and he lost his wife Rihana, elder son Ghaleb who was four year old and Aylan, whose photo is going viral on social media.
Abdullah told this to Dogan news Agency of Turkey, “I was holding my wife’s hand. But my children slipped through my hands. We tried to cling to the small boat, but it was deflating. It was dark and everyone was screaming.”
Twelve migrants from Syria have said to be drowned after the two boats of migrants sank, however the image of Aylan got noticed more and it got viral on the social media.
There is a second image also in which a Turkish Security official is carrying Aylan in his arms.
Abdullah with his family and three other Syrians, was travelling from Kobane to reach the Greek island of Kos which is to the south of Turkey Bodrum Peninsula.
He told, “The boat started to take in water 500 meters (0.3 miles) from the shore. Our feet were wet.” All the migrants got panic. He tried to hold his wife and kids but all went in vain. He said, “I tried to swim to the shore with the help of the lights but couldn’t find my wife and children once I was there. I thought they got scared and ran away, when I couldn’t find them in our meeting point in city (Bodrum) where we normally meet, I went to the hospital and got the bad news.”
Abdullah also told that he was trying to take his family to Canada to escape the Islamist terrorists, but now he wants to return to Kobane to bury his family. An official from hospital in Boldrum told AFP that bodies will reach to Kobane from the border town Suruc after they will be flown from Istanbul.
Abdullah also told that in past also he has paid people-smugglers two times to reach Kos.
He told, “At first attempt, the coastguard officials detained us and we were later released,” while the next time, “the traffickers (organisers) didn’t keep their promises and didn’t show up with the boat.”
As both the earlier times they were not able to succeed, this time they made a decision to take the journey on their own and, “obtained a boat on our own means and tried to cross to the other side.”