Thoughts of Turkish police officer who picked up Aylan Kurdi

His father Abdullah, who had hoped for a new, safe life for his family now wants to stay in the war-ravaged town beside their graves.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada said September 3 that it received an application for Kurdi‘s brother, Mohammed Kurdi, but said it was incomplete and didn’t meet regulatory requirements for proof of refugee status recognition.

Abdullah isn’t ready to leave his Syrian hometown of Kobani, where his sons, three-year-old Aylan and five-year-old Ghalib, and wife Rehanna were buried on Friday, she said.

“When I saw the three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, I was petrified”, recalls the photographer who shot the heart-breaking picture of the Syrian toddler refugee drowned at a Turkish beach.

Tima Kurdi said that her brother buried his children and his wife in Syria and has not left their graveside.

Speaking this weekend, the heartbroken father said “nothing can compensate” for losing his family.

“Those kids… since the day they were born, they didn’t have a good life and I feel sometimes guilty I didn’t help enough”, she said.

Later Abdullah, 40, stood outside the home they fled, his sons’ shoes, clothes and toys still laid out on a bed.

She said his grandfather reassured Galip not to worry and that he would be OK.

The memorial at Simon Fraser University- hosted by Alan Kurdi’s aunt Tima – is attracting worldwide attention online.

When asked about her nephews, one of the few phone calls she could remember with 5-year-old Ghalib dealt with a fairly simple little boy request.

“At that moment, I empathized and put myself in baby Aylan’s father’s place“, he said, adding that he himself has a six-year-old son.

They were fleeing horrors in Syria, where ISIS militants had beheaded one of her sister-in-law’s relatives.

Twelve refugees drowned on Wednesday when two boats sank on the short crossing to Greece, and images of Aylan’s lifeless body washed ashore in Bodrum in southwest Turkey sparked global outrage over Europe’s migrant crisis.

Jordan has taken in at least 600,000 of them, according to the United Nations, but the government in Amman says the figure is 1.4 million. Then again, I am happy that the world finally cares and is mourning the dead children. “It’s risky, ‘” she said, weeping.

“Abdullah said to me, ‘I don’t want you to come”.

The vigils also follow an emotional Facebook post by NSW Premier Mike Baird, in which he says the image of Aylan’s body “changes everything”. Others pleaded for help to be allowed to continue their journey.