Relatives of drowned Syrian boy welcomed to Canada

Tima Kurdi, middle, holds up her nephew Sherwan Kurdi as she welcomes her brother Mohammed Kurdi, right, and his family at Vancouver International airport in Vancouver, British Columbia, on December 28, 2015.

Kurdi said her message to the refugees of the world is that “there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel”.

Family members of Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, whose drowning off the coast of Turkey triggered an global outcry, are expected to arrive in Canada as refugees.

Also on hand to welcome the family were schoolchildren holding signs that read “Welcome to Canada”.

Kurdi’s brother Mohammed says he nearly can’t believe he’s here, saying it’s “dream come true, we nearly lost hope”.

“Thank you Canada! Thank you Canada!” the Kurdi children chanted in English, during an emotional press conference for which Tima Kurdi provided translation from Arabic.

“I’m happy to start going to school and start a new life, but (at) the same time, all the thought on the airplane, 10 hours, (I was) thinking about… the cousins”, he said through his aunt.

Tima and Mohammed’s three-year-old nephew, Alan Kurdi, drowned alongside his five-year-old brother and their mother while crossing the waters between Turkey and Greece in September.

The photo of his three -year-old son Allan’s lifeless body shocked the world, becoming iconic of the refugee crisis.

She also specifically thanked local elected officials – NDP MP Fin Donnelly, NDP MLA Selina Robinson, Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart – for assisting the family’s refugee application as well as the German, Turkish, and Iraq’s Kurdish governments for supporting her family and other refugees. He has yet to meet his youngest child, who was born in July, but the family will reunite in Frankfurt before flying to Canada.

“It was a feeling he can not express”.

Kurdi’s other brother, Abdullah, was not so lucky.

She added: “Thank you Canadian people”. “With the help of my brothers and the family, we’ll all get them on their feet and show them around”.

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

The Kurdis are among 25,000 Syrian refugees the Canadian government has pledged to welcome by the end of February.

The federal website that updates progress listed 2,413 refugees as having arrived in Canada by Boxing Day. “Please don’t close the door in their face”. Since Alan’s death (whose name is sometimes spelled Aylan), 100 more children have drowned in the Mediterranean, the New York Times reported.

“Abdullah, all of us here, we wish you were here with us”. She travelled to Belgium, Germany and Turkey, helping give a voice to those displaced by the war in Syria.