NewsAlert:Family of drowned Syrian boy lands in Canada

Looking on at centre is Haveen Kurdi, 16, Mohammad’s eldest daughter.

Relatives of a Syrian boy whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach landed in Vancouver on Monday.

Mohammed Kurdi, his wife and five children wiped away tears when they were greeted by a party of welcomers with Canadian flags and balloons as well as Tima Kurdi, his sister and private sponsor for coming to Canada.

It’s been nearly four months since Tima Kurdi’s family tried to seek refuge in Canada.

Mr Kurdi thanked the Canadian people and the Canadian government for making his dream come true.

“I’m happy of course that they are coming”, Tima told the Wall Street Journal on a telephone interview from her home near Vancouver shortly before the family’s arrival.

His son, 14-year-old Shergo Kurdi, echoed his father’s sentiments, adding he was happy to be returning to school soon and starting a new life.

The Liberals have committed to taking in 25,000 refugees by the end of February, although they admit they will likely fall short of their revised target to settle 10,000 by the end of the year.

Tima and Mohammad are the aunt and the uncle of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old boy who died alongside his brother Galib, 5, and their mother, Rehana, when their boat capsized between Turkey and the Greek island of Kos, in the early hours of Sept 2, 2015.

Mohammed’s original refugee application was rejected by the previous Tory government because of what officials called a lack of necessary documentation.

Tima Kurdi then thanked a long list of people for helping get her family to Canada.

Mohammed has been in Germany for more than half a year and has not seen his family, who were in Turkey, for seven months. Until their flight to Canada, he had yet to even meet his youngest child, who was born after the family separated.

“It was a feeling he can not express. They’re like every single one of us in the West”, Kurdi says, her fingers playing anxiously with the tissue she holds in her lap.

Tima Kurdi broke out into a jog, towards glass doors at Vancouver’s global airport and the last thing that separated her from the family that has been on its own run, from the chaos that has consumed Syria. Today, she offered a message to him as she was reunited with her family.

Grieving his irreparable loss, he said, “At this time of year I would like to ask you all to think about the pain of fathers, mothers and children who are seeking peace and security”.

“That’s why”, she says, explaining her advocacy work. “Please don’t close the door in their face”.