THE father of the three-year-old boy whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach was allegedly a people smuggler and was at the helm of the boat when it foundered, killing his son. Australian broadcaster Network Ten has aired allegations that Aylan Kurdi’s father Abdullah was a people trafficker who skippered the vessel which capsized off the Turkish coast.
An Iraqi woman on board the boat, who lost two of her children, made the allegations from Iraq early Friday morning. It was alleged they had paid US$10,000 for the trip.
Zainab Abbas, via her Sydney based cousin Lara Tahseen, told 10 News the boy’s father was driving the boat.
“He was a smuggler, yes, he was the one driving the boat,’’ she told Network 10. “He was a smuggler, yes, he was the one driving the boat,’’ she told Network 10.
According to the Sydney Daily Telegraph, a people smuggler who they paid the money to told them the captain was taking his children.
“He said; ‘don’t worry the captain of the boat, the driver, is going to bring his two kids and his wife’… He was going crazy, like speed.”
The boat hit a wave at speed and capsized. The young toddler’s body washed up on the beach and the subsequent furore it provoked sparked an international debate about the fate of others making the same journey across the Mediterranean.
Further allegations have been levelled at Mr Kurdi, with sources telling Breitbart London that one Iraqi family on the same boat will be “going public” with more information about Mr Kurdi’s state of mind when steering the boat.
Earlier this week Mr Kurdi blamed Canadian authorities for the deaths of his wife and sons, telling German news site Die Welt that he did not understand why Canada rejected his application for asylum. But Canada’s immigration department said it had not received a refugee application from Mr Kurdi.
He has now returned to Syria and the ruins of the city of Kobani; the home he and his family had fled. His wife and sons were buried in Kobani on Friday.
International aid agencies as well as pro-migration campaigners have been using the case of Aylan Kurdi as rationale Europe taking more migrants onto its shores. The recent revelations may distinctly undermine their cause and indeed spread light on the real problem in the region: people smugglers.
Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com