Picture of Syrian refugee boy on beach prompts humanitarian action
BERKELEY - The photo of the three-year-old Syrian refugee boy lying on a beach in Turkey has broken hearts worldwide and ignited impassioned calls for action by the United Nations and western countries.
The child, his five-year-old brother, mother and father were among the nameless masses just last week who are fleeing war-ravaged Syria and ISIS. It is a deluge of desperate people fleeing Syria and arriving daily in countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, and Hungary.
On Wednesday, three-year-old Alayn Kurdi's mother and father paid smugglers to take them on a small rubber boat with other refugees from Turkey to Greece. Rough waves capsized the boat. The two Kurdish boys and their mother were among the 12 dead.
The story has spread online, along with photos that people worldwide have found both heartbreaking and shocking. It shows the little boy face down, almost as though he's sleeping, with his face in the sand and water.
On Friday his father returned to Syria to bury his family in Kobani, saying he will stay there where his loved ones now rest.
The boy's aunt in Canada had tried to bring the family west as refugees and wiped away tears while talking to reporters in Canada, making a plea to the world.
"They didn't deserve to die. They didn't. They were going for a better life," said Tima Kurdi, the boy's aunt.
"This is one the most severe refugee crises seen anywhere at least since World War II," said Jamie O'Connell, a Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley School of Law.
"For, I think, any human being, it (the photo) brings home the tragedy, the human tragedy that this involves," O'Connell said.
O'Connell says 1.9 million Syrians have entered Turkey, 1.1 million have fled to Lebanon, and thousands more are pouring into Greece, hoping to make it north to other European countries. In Budapest, Hungary hundreds of refugees climbed fences to get out of a holding camp. Others pleaded for help to be allowed to continue their journey.
"Don't leave us here. Don't leave us here, not now, not tomorrow. Today we need to move," one man cried out.
Still others went on foot, leaving Budapest to try and reach the Austrian border, 100 miles away.
Germany is now agreeing to accept up to 800,000 people.
The United Nations said Friday that more European countries need to share the load with Germany and take in 200,000 Syrian refugees.
The United States has accepted about 1,500 and there are calls now for the U.S. to do more.
The State Department, however, said to accept people from that region right now would involve an extensive review process to screen refugees for terrorist connections and that could take 18-24 months.
More countries are vowing to help. But it comes too late for the three-year-old boy, whose name people around the world know now.