Heart break. That’s the word to describe situation who saw the pictures of a toddler’s lifeless body, which washed ashore on a Turkish beach on Wednesday. The incident sparked horror all over Europe.
The images of a tiny child lying face down in the surf at one of Turkey’s main tourist resorts has once more put a human face on the dangers faced by tens of thousands of desperate people who risk life and limb to seek a new life in Europe.
Wearing a red T-shirt and blue shorts, the child is identified as three-year-old Aylan Kurdi.
Going into the details, Aylan was believed to be traveling with his family on a tiny boat built for four people but which was carrying 15 refugees, believed to be from the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, who fled to Turkey in 2014 to escape Islamic State extremists.
The toddler was one of at least 12 Syrian migrants who died, five of whom were children, including five-year-old brother Galip. Another 15 people were rescued.
“The boat sank around 4:00 am (0100 GMT), close to the lighthouse in the Akyarlar region,” the rescue worker said, suggesting the boats had capsized.
“Most probably they were panicked and many didn’t know how to swim.”
Humanity washed ashore. That was the top trending hash tag yesterday on twitter. “#KiyiyaVuranInsanlik” in Turkish.
Media outlets all across the Europe responded to incident. “Tiny victim of a human catastrophe,” said Britain’s Daily Mail.
