On the one-year anniversary of the death of little Alan Kurdi, his aunt is urging world leaders to help end the fighting in Syria, while also opening their doors to those refugees still fleeing.
“For us, from personal experience, to watch the news all the time and see those innocent kids still dying and suffering and you see it in their eyes… I can understand them. I can feel them,” Kurdi told CTV News Channel on Saturday from Irbil, Iraq where she is visiting her brother.
She recalled the promises politicians made a year ago to help those who were fleeing war-torn Syria. But now she fears the war is only getting worse in her family’s home country.
Kurdi, who lives in Port Coquitlam, B.C., has watched as Canada welcomed thousands of refugees. She commended the Canadian government but said there are still countless other Syrian refugees.
“The world should keep their door open to them until the war will end in Syria,” she urged.
She also called on world leaders to come together to and take action to end the war.
“Until that happens everywhere, every country should open their door to those refugees,” she said.
She said her brother Abdullah can’t help but see his son in recent news stories. She described watching her brother fall to ground in tears after seeing a photo on the front page of a newspaper of people who had drowned along the Libyan coast while also trying to flee.
When she asked him what was wrong, he answered: “This is me.”
“It’s our one year anniversary and look what’s still happening,” she tearfully described him saying, “I can feel those people. I can see my tragedy. I cannot watch this anymore.”
