B.C. aunt of Alan Kurdi says she’ll continue fight to bring family to Canada

Tima Kurdi will give her brother time to grieve for his wife and their two sons, who died this week in a desperate attempt to cross the Aegean Sea to Kos.

But she will continue to fight to bring Abdullah Kurdi, as well as their other siblings and their families, to Canada despite the red tape that has drawn international attention because of her family's case.

"I have a plan for him – to bring him here," said Ms. Kurdi, who lives in Coquitlam, B.C. "I will give him time. When he is ready, I will try my best to get him here."

She has spent the three days since her relatives' deaths trying to highlight the plight of refugees during the Syrian civil war.

Earlier this week, Mr. Kurdi paid smugglers thousands of dollars to take his family to the Greek island aboard a small dinghy. It hit strong waves minutes after setting off and capsized.

On Friday, Mr. Kurdi helped bury his wife and sons in Kobani, the conflict-torn Syrian city they had fled.

A jarring image of Mr. Kurdi's three-year-old son, Alan, washed up on a Turkish beach has sparked outrage around the world, becoming an emblem of those fleeing conflict.

Since the tragedy, a devastated Mr. Kurdi has told his sister he wants to stay in Kobani "for the rest of [his] life" to tend to the grave sites of his sons. But she is hopeful he will join her in B.C. one day.

She said the Turkish government has been "very helpful" in recent days, giving her optimism that it may assist with any needed documentation.

Ms. Kurdi said she has not heard from the Canadian government.

She had tried to bring another brother, Mohammad, and his family to Canada. However, Citizenship and Immigration Canada rejected the application, saying it was incomplete.

In a letter to Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, dated March 17, Ms. Kurdi wrote that it was impossible for Mohammad to secure a Turkish exit visa or re-enter Syria to obtain certain documentation. She said "their situation had become desperate" and asked for help.

An attachment to the letter outlined her brother family's journey from Damascus to Istanbul, including their encounter with rebels. The attachment also mentioned Abdullah by name.

"As they are Kurds, there is a definite prejudice against them with the Turkish population," Ms. Kurdi wrote.

She declined to provide further details of that letter, but on Friday said that family members had died gruesome deaths during the attack on Kobani by Islamic State militants in June.

"I remember they sent me some pictures of our relatives being beheaded. They told me, 'Remember this cousin?' [They were] terrible, terrible photos."

NDP MP Fin Donnelly helped deliver the letter earlier this year. When they followed up, the office initially asked for supplemental information, but then correspondence petered out.

Mohammad's application was officially rejected in June. He now remains in Germany while his family is in Turkey.

Abdullah Kurdi told his sister that, in the face of such bureaucracy, he felt no choice but to pursue the more desperate course of action.

On Friday afternoon, the only images Ms. Kurdi had seen of the burial came from a short video shown to her by a journalist.

"I wish I was there with him," she said through tears. "He felt lonely not to have his sisters, his brothers, his dad with him. But he understands that, because of the war, we are all in separate places."

Other Kurdi siblings include two sisters in Turkey and one sister in Syria.

A memorial service is planned for the Kurdi family on Saturday afternoon at Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre in Vancouver.