One year after the lifeless body of a three-year-old boy washed up on a Turkish beach, the boy’s family says little has been done to stop the war in Syria and migrants continue to die trying to reach Europe every day.
The UNHCR estimates that, since three-year-old Alan Kurdi’s death 12 months ago, 4,176 people have died or gone missing on the Mediterranean Sea -- an average of 11 per day.
In fact, 2016 is on track to be the worst year for migrant deaths so far, with 3,169 already dead or missing so far in 2016, compared to 3,771 who died or went missing in 2015, according to UNHCR.
Alan’s Canadian aunt, Tima Kurdi, wonders what happened to the global outrage that followed the release of an iconic photo of her dead nephew.
“Why can we not help them?” she told CTV News Channel Friday from Irbil, Iraq, where she is visiting her brother, Abdullah.
“This has been continuing for last six years,” she said of the Syrian civil war that has pushed about 4.8 million people from their homes. Kurdi said “innocent kids” are dying every day.
“All they want is toys and food, like my own kids and your kids.”
Abdullah Kurdi, who lost his wife Rihan and two sons, Alan and Galip, when their boat trying to reach Greece capsized last summer, told Germany’s Bild newspaper that “politicians said after the death of my family: never again.”
“Everyone allegedly wanted to do something after the photos that had so moved them,” he went on. “But what is happening now? The dying goes on and nobody's doing anything."
The Kurdis were from Syria, which has accounted for about 30 per cent of the estimated 284,473 migrants who have arrived in Europe by sea so far in 2016. Other top source countries include Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria and Eritrea.
Kelly Bowden, from Oxfam Canada, told CTV News Channel Kurdi’s death changed the way Canadians talked about the refugee crisis for the better, but there is far more still to do.
More than 30,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in Canada since the Liberals took office last fall. About 10,000 have settled in the United States.
Bowden urged Canadians to donate to organizations helping to manage the crisis, while also pressuring the federal government to make a greater commitment to refugees at an upcoming international meeting in New York.
Oxfam Canada notes the world’s six wealthiest countries -- the United States, China, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom -- hosted less than nine per cent of the world’s 65 million refugees in 2015.
With a report from CTV’s London Bureau Chief Paul Workman
