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Drowned Syrian boy Aylan buried as Europe wrangles over refugees

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The father of a Syrian toddler whose drowning shocked the world buried his family on Thursday in the war-torn town they originally fled, as divided European ministers scrambled to agree a response to the refugee crisis.

Hungarian authorities were locked in a stand-off with migrants who left Budapest's main train station on foot for Austria, while Britain said it would take thousands more Syrian refugees as the crisis mounted.

Pressure on EU leaders has intensified with the heartbreaking pictures of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi's body on a Turkish beach, after he drowned with his brother Ghaleb and mother Rihana while they tried to cross to Greece.

Images of the slain toddler have dominated international headlines
Images of the slain toddler have dominated international headlines
Dogan News Agency/AFP

His father Abdullah Kurdi -- who has told how his sons "slipped through my hands" when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea -- returned home to the Syrian border town of Kobane to lay them to rest.

"I will have to pay the price for this the rest of my life," the devastated father told mourners, after carrying his sons' bodies himself to be buried in Kobane's Martyrs' Cemetery, where around 100 people attended the ceremony.

The family were driven out of Kobane in June following fierce fighting between Kurdish militants and Islamic State militants, and Kurdi called for a "solution to the tragedies" gripping his country.

Syrian migrant Abdullah Kurdi mourns his family in Kobane  on September 4  2015 after losing his wif...
Syrian migrant Abdullah Kurdi mourns his family in Kobane, on September 4, 2015 after losing his wife and two sons in a boat sinking as they tried to reach Greece
, AFP

Tensions are mounting over Europe's failure to cope with the worst refugee crisis since World War II, during which more than 350,00 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean Sea, and around 2,600 have died.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warned that the EU faced a "defining moment" after little Aylan's death and called for the mandatory resettlement of 200,000 refugees by EU states.

- 'Stop pointing the finger' -

EU foreign ministers met in Luxembourg to discuss the crisis, which has split the bloc between countries like Germany urging more solidarity and mainly eastern nations such as Hungary that take a hardline approach.

Aylan Kurdi  a three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned off Turkey as a boat bound for Greece sank  was...
Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned off Turkey as a boat bound for Greece sank, was buried in Kobane, on September 4, 2015 alongside his mother and brother
AFP

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier -- whose country is taking in 800,000 asylum seekers this year, far more than any other EU nation -- urged partners to "stop pointing the finger. Recriminations will not get this under control".

Hungary's right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban had lashed out at Germany on Thursday for aggravating the flow of people through his country by saying it would not deport Syrian refugees.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has proposed mandatory quotas for resettling 160,000 refugees across the EU to take the pressure off overstretched Greece, Italy and Hungary.

A Turkish police officer carries a migrant child's dead body off the shores in Bodrum  on Septe...
A Turkish police officer carries a migrant child's dead body off the shores in Bodrum, on September 2, 2015, after a boat carrying refugees sank while trying to reach the Greek island of Kos
, Dogan News Agency/AFP/File

Hungary has become the latest flashpoint, with police locked in a stalemate with thousands of refugees who have streamed across a new route through the Western Balkans in recent months.

More than 1,000 migrants stranded for days at Budapest's main train station left the building on Friday, intent on walking to the Austrian border. Some were on crutches, while some parents carried their children on their shoulders.

"We are very happy that something is happening at last, The next stop is Austria. The children are very tired, Hungary is very bad, we have to go somehow," 23-year-old Osama from Syria told AFP.

Men load into a funeral vehicle the coffins of migrants  including three-year old Aylan Kurdi  a Syr...
Men load into a funeral vehicle the coffins of migrants, including three-year old Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach after a boat carrying refugees sank, at the morgue in Mugla, southern Turkey, September 3, 2015
Ozan Kose, AFP

Hungary meanwhile shut its main border crossing with Serbia after about 300 people escaped from a nearby refugee camp in Roszke. Separately 500 migrants refused for a second day to get off a train that police stopped en route to the Austrian border.

- Britain to take thousands more -

The scenes will increase international pressure on Orban, who has been criticised for building a fence on the border with Serbia to keep out migrants, and for comments warning that Europe's Christian roots were at risk from Muslim migrants.

Syrian relatives bury the coffin of Aylan Kurdi -- the three-year-old boy who drowned off Turkey -- ...
Syrian relatives bury the coffin of Aylan Kurdi -- the three-year-old boy who drowned off Turkey -- during a funeral ceremony in Kobane, on September 4, 2015
Anha, AFP

Under-fire British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose country has been accused of failing to help shoulder the burden, said meanwhile he would set out plans next week for his country to take "thousands more" refugees.

"I can announce that we will do more, providing resettlement for thousands more Syrian refugees," Cameron said in Lisbon.

However he insisted Britain would take refugees direct from camps on the border with Syria and not those already in other EU member states, saying that would just encourage more people to make the journey to Europe.

At least 30 more migrants are feared to have drowned off Libya after their dinghy began to sink, the International Organisation for Migration said Friday.

The human cost of the migrant crisis has been underscored by the drowning of Aylan, and the images of the child's lifeless body, in a T-shirt, shorts and shoes, lying face down on the beach.

Reports said the family were trying to get to Canada but Ottawa denied it had received an asylum request from them.

The picture sent shockwaves across the world, with charity Migrant Offshore Aid Station, which helps rescue migrants in the Mediterranean, saying it had received a record 600,000 euros in donations since it was published.

But it has also prompted a furious reaction, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which hosts 1.8 million Syrian refugees, accusing European leaders of turning the Mediterranean into a "cemetery".

Russian President Vladimir Putin, a long-standing ally of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, said Europe's migrant crisis was an "absolutely expected" result of the West's policies in the Middle East.

The father of a Syrian toddler whose drowning shocked the world buried his family on Thursday in the war-torn town they originally fled, as divided European ministers scrambled to agree a response to the refugee crisis.

Hungarian authorities were locked in a stand-off with migrants who left Budapest’s main train station on foot for Austria, while Britain said it would take thousands more Syrian refugees as the crisis mounted.

Pressure on EU leaders has intensified with the heartbreaking pictures of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s body on a Turkish beach, after he drowned with his brother Ghaleb and mother Rihana while they tried to cross to Greece.

Images of the slain toddler have dominated international headlines

Images of the slain toddler have dominated international headlines
Dogan News Agency/AFP

His father Abdullah Kurdi — who has told how his sons “slipped through my hands” when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea — returned home to the Syrian border town of Kobane to lay them to rest.

“I will have to pay the price for this the rest of my life,” the devastated father told mourners, after carrying his sons’ bodies himself to be buried in Kobane’s Martyrs’ Cemetery, where around 100 people attended the ceremony.

The family were driven out of Kobane in June following fierce fighting between Kurdish militants and Islamic State militants, and Kurdi called for a “solution to the tragedies” gripping his country.

Syrian migrant Abdullah Kurdi mourns his family in Kobane  on September 4  2015 after losing his wif...

Syrian migrant Abdullah Kurdi mourns his family in Kobane, on September 4, 2015 after losing his wife and two sons in a boat sinking as they tried to reach Greece
, AFP

Tensions are mounting over Europe’s failure to cope with the worst refugee crisis since World War II, during which more than 350,00 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean Sea, and around 2,600 have died.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warned that the EU faced a “defining moment” after little Aylan’s death and called for the mandatory resettlement of 200,000 refugees by EU states.

– ‘Stop pointing the finger’ –

EU foreign ministers met in Luxembourg to discuss the crisis, which has split the bloc between countries like Germany urging more solidarity and mainly eastern nations such as Hungary that take a hardline approach.

Aylan Kurdi  a three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned off Turkey as a boat bound for Greece sank  was...

Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned off Turkey as a boat bound for Greece sank, was buried in Kobane, on September 4, 2015 alongside his mother and brother
AFP

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier — whose country is taking in 800,000 asylum seekers this year, far more than any other EU nation — urged partners to “stop pointing the finger. Recriminations will not get this under control”.

Hungary’s right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban had lashed out at Germany on Thursday for aggravating the flow of people through his country by saying it would not deport Syrian refugees.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has proposed mandatory quotas for resettling 160,000 refugees across the EU to take the pressure off overstretched Greece, Italy and Hungary.

A Turkish police officer carries a migrant child's dead body off the shores in Bodrum  on Septe...

A Turkish police officer carries a migrant child's dead body off the shores in Bodrum, on September 2, 2015, after a boat carrying refugees sank while trying to reach the Greek island of Kos
, Dogan News Agency/AFP/File

Hungary has become the latest flashpoint, with police locked in a stalemate with thousands of refugees who have streamed across a new route through the Western Balkans in recent months.

More than 1,000 migrants stranded for days at Budapest’s main train station left the building on Friday, intent on walking to the Austrian border. Some were on crutches, while some parents carried their children on their shoulders.

“We are very happy that something is happening at last, The next stop is Austria. The children are very tired, Hungary is very bad, we have to go somehow,” 23-year-old Osama from Syria told AFP.

Men load into a funeral vehicle the coffins of migrants  including three-year old Aylan Kurdi  a Syr...

Men load into a funeral vehicle the coffins of migrants, including three-year old Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach after a boat carrying refugees sank, at the morgue in Mugla, southern Turkey, September 3, 2015
Ozan Kose, AFP

Hungary meanwhile shut its main border crossing with Serbia after about 300 people escaped from a nearby refugee camp in Roszke. Separately 500 migrants refused for a second day to get off a train that police stopped en route to the Austrian border.

– Britain to take thousands more –

The scenes will increase international pressure on Orban, who has been criticised for building a fence on the border with Serbia to keep out migrants, and for comments warning that Europe’s Christian roots were at risk from Muslim migrants.

Syrian relatives bury the coffin of Aylan Kurdi -- the three-year-old boy who drowned off Turkey -- ...

Syrian relatives bury the coffin of Aylan Kurdi — the three-year-old boy who drowned off Turkey — during a funeral ceremony in Kobane, on September 4, 2015
Anha, AFP

Under-fire British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose country has been accused of failing to help shoulder the burden, said meanwhile he would set out plans next week for his country to take “thousands more” refugees.

“I can announce that we will do more, providing resettlement for thousands more Syrian refugees,” Cameron said in Lisbon.

However he insisted Britain would take refugees direct from camps on the border with Syria and not those already in other EU member states, saying that would just encourage more people to make the journey to Europe.

At least 30 more migrants are feared to have drowned off Libya after their dinghy began to sink, the International Organisation for Migration said Friday.

The human cost of the migrant crisis has been underscored by the drowning of Aylan, and the images of the child’s lifeless body, in a T-shirt, shorts and shoes, lying face down on the beach.

Reports said the family were trying to get to Canada but Ottawa denied it had received an asylum request from them.

The picture sent shockwaves across the world, with charity Migrant Offshore Aid Station, which helps rescue migrants in the Mediterranean, saying it had received a record 600,000 euros in donations since it was published.

But it has also prompted a furious reaction, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which hosts 1.8 million Syrian refugees, accusing European leaders of turning the Mediterranean into a “cemetery”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, a long-standing ally of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, said Europe’s migrant crisis was an “absolutely expected” result of the West’s policies in the Middle East.

AFP
Written By

With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.

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