Relatives of drowned Syrian boy reach Canada

Mohammed Kurdi, his wife and children will all stay with Tima Kurdi and her family for now.

He is the father of Alan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler whose photograph galvanized the world around the refugee crisis.

Mohammad Kurdi, along with his wife and five children, arrived at Vancouver’s airport into the welcoming arms of Tima Kurdi, who is privately sponsoring her brother and his family as refugees in Canada.

One of the older boys said he was thankful not only to the Canadian people and Canadian government, but also to government of Turkey, to which the family had first fled.

“We are very happy, this dream come true”, said Mohammed, which was translated from Arabic by Tima.

“To refugees who struggle all over the world, I’m going to tell them: There is always a light at the end of the tunnel”, continued Tima.

“It still has not hit me yet, the excitement”, says Kurdi about her relatives’ pending arrival.

The Conservatives lost the October election to Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, which pledged to swiftly bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees.

Alan’s father Abdullah Kurdi lives in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and has decided against travelling to Canada. Canadian officials said the application did not have the required documentation.

Mohammad Kurdi, uncle to the deceased three-year-old Alan, had only hours before been reunited with his wife and five children in Germany, where he had been living while his family waited in Turkey.

“A feeling I could not express, it was very emotional.”

“I want to teach them English”, said Kurdi’s son, Alan Kerim.

Tima’s initial application to bring in Mohammad and his family to Canada was rejected by Citizenship and Immigration Canada as incomplete. “With the help of my brothers and the family, we’ll all get them on their feet and show them around”.

The Canadian government will be sponsoring the resettlement of around 15,000 refugees while groups of individual Canadians will sponsor the relocation of the rest.

The federal website that updates progress listed 2,413 refugees as having arrived in Canada by Boxing Day.

It highlighted the plight of the hundreds of thousands of refugees flooding out of war-torn Syria and drew worldwide attention to what is, according to the International Organization for Migration, the most deadly crossing point in the world.

His sister Tima spoke of her desire to see her brother join them in Canada saying, “All of us here wish you were here with us”. “Please don’t close the door in their face”.

Mohammad Kurdi will be joining his sister at her Port Coquitlam hair salon on Coast Meridian Road, where he’ll work as a barber.