At least 12 Syrians trying to reach Greece have drowned off Turkey after the boats they were travelling in sank. An image of one of the victims – a kid lying face down on the beach – has sparked an international outcry over the human cost of the crisis.The picture, released by a Turkish news agency, is trending worldwide on Twitter under the #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik (“humanity washed ashore”) hashtag. Thousands of migrants have died this year trying to reach Europe by sea. Another image shows a sombre Turkish rescue worker carrying the child off the beach.The toddler was named by Turkish media as three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who was from the war-torn Syrian town of Kobani.He reportedly died alongside his five-year-old brother who had been travelling in the same boat. The boys are believed to be two of 11 Syrian refugees who died after trying to cross the Mediterranean on two boats bound for the Greek island of Kos. Turkish media identified the boy as three-year-old Aylan Kurdi and reported that his five-year-old brother had also met a similar death. Both had reportedly hailed from the northern Syrian town of Kobani, the site of fierce fighting between Islamic state insurgents and Kurdish forces earlier this year. Turkish officials, corroborating the reports, said 12 people died after two boats carrying a total of 23 people, capsized after setting off separately from the Akyarlar area of the Bodrum peninsula. Among the dead were five children and a woman. Seven others were rescued and two reached the shore in lifejackets but hopes were fading of saving the two people still missing. The casualties were among thousands of people, mostly Syrians, fleeing war and the brutal occupation by Islamic fundamentalists in their homeland.Kos, facing Turkey’s Aegean coast, has become a magnet for people determined to reach Europe. An estimated 2,500 refugees, also believed to be from Syria, landed on Lesbos on Wednesday in what local officials described as more than 60 dinghies and other “unseaworthy” vessels.Some 15,000 refugees are in Lesbos awaiting passage by cruise ship to Athens’ port of Piraeus before continuing their journey northwards to Macedonia and up through Serbia to Hungary and Germany. There are approximately 4 million Syrians who are now trying to escape death in Syria. Many are stranded, lost, suffering or already dead. These are called “War Refugees” not “Migrants”. Thousands are already living below poverty line in camps and tents in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Greece, and thousands are trying to reach Europe because that’s their last hope. They are not after your tax money or your jobs, they are after rescuing their children and families from eminent death.
pk.shafaqna.com
